Peer-to-peer broadband restrictions favoured by one in every five users

The conclusion of a survey that was recently carried out by ISPreview.co.uk discovered that the one out of every five broadband customers believe that illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) activity should have harsher restrictions imposed.

It was revealed that 20.7 percent of Brits felt that capping the maximum speeds that P2P services are allowed to run or even the blocking of all illegal downloads website hosting links was something they would support, following the questioning by ISPreview.co.uk of 472 respondents.


Only 14.8 percent of those taking part in the survey said that punishing regular illegal downloading by restricting the overall broadband speed of user’s was something they were in favour of, whereas 26.9 percent said that they were supportive of aggressive warning letter. Those who had no suggestions towards resolving the issue came to 22.4 percent.

The revelation that it is intended that it will soon by legally required for a more proactive stance taken to be taken by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in those customers believed to be illegally downloading being cautioned, came in last months Digital Britain report by Lord Carter.

The idea of downloader’s facing more serious consequences, ISPreview.co.uk noted, was something that few consumers in the UK wanted, even though punishments involving broadband speeds were something they supported. Forcing the termination of a broadband connection was only favoured by 3.6 percent of users and legal action or the enforcing of a fine was only seen as a positive step by 3.6 percent.

Convincing every Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the UK to become executioner will be the next problem, even if its can be agreed on what the most suitable punishment is. The argument that it isn’t an ISP job to police the internet has been expressed by a great many providers lately.

It was argued by the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) before that because they “are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the Post Office is able to open every envelope,” Internet Service Providers (ISPs) do not have the necessary power to combat illegal downloading.