BBC NEWS | Technology | UK court to unmask 'file-sharers'

Pirated Windows CD
About a quarter of software in the UK is estimated to be pirated
Ten Internet service providers have been ordered to hand over the details of 150 UK customers accused of illegally sharing software.

The High Court order follows a 12-month covert investigation by the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast).

Among the Internet providers are BT, NTL, Telewest and Tiscali.

Over the next two weeks, they are expected to provide the names, addresses and other personal details of the alleged file-sharers.

File-shares in the US have been under attack for ages, and it looks like the pace in the UK is being picked up, I wouldn't in anyway condone pirating windows, but when it's so expensive you can see why people do it.

The bottom line is that software prices have to change, look at the music industry, downloading has practically killed the singles market but the album chart has grown dramatically ! (Not to mention creating a new downloads market, itunes isn't exactly gong under) The same kind of thing has to change for major software distributions; personally I think making them free, and paying for support is a good step, maybe paying £2pcm for software updates is acceptable (security ones being free of course).... I'll be honest and admit that I don't have the answer, but continuous news about more and more file-sharers being taken to court obviously isn't working !