In an effort to stymie Internet pirates, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a music industry group, is asking European lawmakers to require Internet service providers to use filters to block the illicit transfer of copyrighted material.The Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a privacy advocate, responded by sending a letter to the European Parliament arguing that such filters would be an “ineffective measure that will do little to practically address the concerns of major rights holders while imposing serious costs on the individual rights of European citizens.”The filtering technology would not be effective, according to the foundation, because pirates would simply encrypt files to bypass it in the same way that banks encrypt credit card information. Meanwhile, legitimate users of copyrighted material would be hampered in their ability to post video and music clips. And the costs would most likely be borne by service providers, and, by extension, their customers, the foundation said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/29/technology/29online.html