John Lovelock, chief executive of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), says that it “must be in the ISPs’ commercial interest to work with rights holders to develop mutual business models.”

There’s the old saying that “if you cannot beat them, join them,” and (FAST) seems to be taking it to heart. For years it’s fought a war against the business model of ISPs and tried to force them into the fight against illegal file-sharing with little success, so now it wants to try a different tactic by intertwining the business models of the two.

“It must be in the ISPs’ commercial interest to work with rights holders to develop mutual business models, thus driving customers to buy legitimate products,” says FAST’s chief executive, John Lovelock. “This would provide both industries with a win-win; and would ensure that SME software houses are not bankrupted by having their expensive bespoke software products shared among businesses without being paid for.”

Interestingly, executives from the music industry seem to agree with Lovelock. They told The New York Times very recently that Internet service providers hold the key to solving the piracy problems and helping the music companies recoup lost revenue.

Traditionally, ISPs are reluctant to take stronger action against file-sharing, saying they do not want to spy on their customers. However, in Ireland ISP Eircom has introduced a kind of ‘three strikes policy’ that can be used to the advantage of both copyright holders and themselves.

The Eircom version of a ‘three strikes out’ policy is indeed innovative. Customers who illegally download music face a “graduated response” similar to the one in France, but they can avoid the threat of disconnection by using a new music service from Eircom that offers free, unlimited streaming. Where Eircom suspects illegal filesharing, they send warning letters to the customer, directing them to legal sources of music, including their own music platform.

Sources: Eircom,  ZeroPaid