Backbytes: Use a VPN? You're probably a filthy pirate, BBC tells Australian government

BBC tells Australia to police internet users more closely - and make the ISPs pay for it

With t'internet breaking down national television boundaries, the few programmes that people actually want to watch from broadcasters like the BBC can be seen around the world before the BBC has even opened negotiations with Moldavian state TV to sell the broadcasting rights.

For the BBC, as much as any other broadcaster, that's a real hassle: How on Earth can it obtain top dollar from Moldava 1 for Doctor Who and Top Gear if everyone's already seen them online?

Maybe that attitude accounts for the BBC's peculiarly ignorant and authoritarian submission to the Australian government on the subject of online piracy? Internet service providers, evil Auntie Beeb argued, should be obliged to monitor their customers' downloadings more closely.

And if they should have the temerity to use a virtual private network (VPN) or proxy servers, for example, which the BBC assumes is so that they can pretend they're in the UK in order to use the BBC iPlayer, then ISPs should be obliged to take "punitive measures" against the offending users by throttling their internet connection.

But who should pay? The authoritarians at the BBC contend that ISPs should bear the cost. However, the crazy-crackers Australian government, which is not unsympathetic to the BBC's arguments, is acutely aware that internet access across the country, thanks to Telstra's near-monopoly, is expensive enough as it is.

No doubt the BBC will instead argue next that the television licence ought to be extended to the whole world.