Here is a quick update to the Phorm article I posted on here a few weeks back.
Unconfirmed rumours are currently circulating that Virgin, one of the three major ISPs to sign up to Phorm, is set to dump the controversial service. Virgin’s official company position has not changed if you ask their press department, though the source of the rumour is a high ranking Virgin Media director.
This comes as yet another blow to Phorm after Talk Talk, another of the three ISPs, stated it would implement the service only on an ‘opt in’ basis - rather than the ‘opt out’ initially hoped for by Phorm.
The Information Commissioner Office (ICO) has this week ruled that Phorm’s service must operate on an ‘opt in’ basis, rather than the ‘opt out’ model which the company had initially intended to deliver. Good. I do not know a single person who was happy with the proposed ‘opt out’ concept, and even would go so far as to say that every setback for Phorm (as long as it persists with opt out) is a victory for the progress of the web…
(Those unfamiliar the recent Phorm controversy can check here and here for background info)
The equation is pretty simple: as the quality of modern broadband provision increases, so too does the range of content that can be accessed illegally. A decade ago an evening’s Napster haul could rarely extend to beyond a few single mp3s, mostly chosen from a fairly narrow selection of what was currently popular. Now a few hours’ downloading can easily yield a hundred chart albums, maybe even a few Hollywood films, computer games or other software. It’s no wonder that the people responsible for publishing this content are keen to reclaim a market they used to rule, and in which now they are increasingly seen as out-dated ogres, selfishly refusing to share, like a child hoarding toys. Their latest lifeline involves using targeted advertising as a replacement revenue stream, which will finally reverse the slump in industry profits, restore confidence in an uneasy market and strike a balance which keeps users, artists and publishers happy. So goes the plan anyway…
