Virgin Media’s New Anti-Piracy Plan Welcomed

Virgin Media’s new anti-piracy plan that will be launched in conjunction with its new unlimited music download service in Q4 this year has been welcomed by the UK recording industry.

Offering DRM free MP3 downloads and streaming music, the music download service already has the Universal Music Group signed up and it is expected other major record lables will soon follow.

Virgin Media’s anti-piracy plan will involve a real crack down on illegal file sharers who use its broadband network. Warning letters will be sent out to persistent offenders, but if that doesn’t work, a temporary suspension will be placed upon the user. This means that they will not be able to access the Internet for a set time period.

The Virgin Media music download service will have two options for users. The first option will allow a certain number of downloads per month.

The second more expensive option will offer unlimited downloads where the user can basically download as many songs as they like for a set monthly fee. This fee hasn’t yet been announced by Virgin Media but it is thought to be the equivalent to the price of two albums.

Despite receiving support from the UK recording industry, the download service has come under criticism by Madeleine Milne, the eMusic Managing Director for Europe, who said, “If it’s truly unlimited, how will they pay the publishers? An unlimited model would be similar to the one eMusic had in 2000, which was unworkable from a revenue standpoint.”