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As a continuation of the actions started in March 2008, and despite opinions that ISPs should not act as an Internet police, the major British record labels represented by British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Virgin Media, UK's largest provider of home broadband, have joint forces in a campaign meant to fight illegal music downloads.

Virgin Media has started warning Internet users illegally downloading music that they may be prosecuted, by sending letters to thousands of households where such activities have taken place.

This appears to be the first step in the attempt of BPI to get ISPs to implement a "three strikes and out" rule, meaning warning and ultimately disconnecting the estimated 6.5 million customers whose accounts are used for illegal downloading activity.

"Virgin Media is the first ISP to publicly address the problem. It is a socially responsible ISP and I think other ISPs will look at this and see progress. I am very encouraged they have engaged with us. They understand the rights of musicians" said Geoff Taylor, BPI's chief executive.

BPI and Virgin have chosen to start with an educational phase before taking any legal action against Internet illegal downloaders. "Education is the absolute key to reducing the amount of illegal downloading ... new partnerships with ISPs can help build an internet in which music is properly valued" stated Taylor.

The intention is first to educate customers during a 10-week trial campaign through "informative" letters they will send which will however be accompanied by a written warning from the BPI, threatening with disconnection and a court case for those who continue to download illegally.

The first letters sent do not consist in threats of disconnection. The letter says: "We understand you may be concerned about this, and you might be unsure how it happened. One possible answer is that other people in your household have used your computer and/or internet connection, and they might have shared these files with others by using unauthorised 'peer-to-peer/P2P' filesharing networks like 'BitTorrent' or 'Limewire'. However, you need to make sure that these files aren't downloaded or shared from your Virgin Media internet connection in future."

Virgin warns illegal downloaders: stop or face prosecution (7.06.2008)
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/virgin-warn...

British ISP, recording industry warn illegal downloaders (6.06.2008)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9962404-7.html

Virgin Media's downloading education campaign represents a turning point in digital music (13.06.2008)
http://www.bpi.co.uk/index.asp?Page=news/bizinfo/news_content_file_846...

Virgin Media Sample Letter
http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/06/06/vm_filesharing_letter.pdf

EDRI-gram: UK: ISPs are not the Internet cops (9.04.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.7/isp-cops-uk

Virgin sends file-sharing warnings to customers (16.06.2008)
http://www.out-law.com/page-9180