Does 'Three Strikes' actually work?

Nick Lansman of ISPA asks of last year's letter-sending campaign, to be incorporated into law by the Digital Economy Bill, did anyone change behaviour? Because if they didn't, all the Bill does is pave the way for stupendous amounts of legislation, Euro-law fights et al.

"ISPs are being asked to police content but this isn't about serious crime but to protect one particular set of rights holders," said Mr Lansman.

"The fact that rights holders can lean on the legislation means there isn't the incentive for them to do anything else in terms of alternatives," said Malcolm Hutty, from net association Linx.

The process of educating consumers about illegal file-sharing has already begun. In July last year, six of the UK's biggest net providers agreed a plan to tackle online piracy. It involved sending out letters to those identified as illegal file-sharers. BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse all signed up. According to Mr Lansman "tens of thousands" of letters were sent during the trial but he has not heard whether the campaign was successful.

"What happened? Did the government see a huge drop in file-sharing? The Digital Economy Bill says we should do the same thing again so I presume that there is some analysis of the trial," he said.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the letters had been sent out because of an industry "memorandum of understanding" (MoU). "The decision not to release a report was down to the industry signatories. The MoU, and the separate wide ranging consultation with stakeholders who have an interest in filesharing, were both used to inform the development of the Digital Economy Bill."