Some of the most popular ways the music industry try tackling piracy with include suing the makers of file sharing applications, suing end users for unauthorised file sharing and trying to get Internet Service Providers to detect and block the sharing of copyrighted files.  This time, U2's manager, Paul McGuiness wants to force ISPs into fighting piracy by calling on ISPs to bill customers for each song they illegally download.

While the ISPs don't condone online copyright infringement, they have rejected McGuiness' call saying that it is impossible for them to identify content that is being transferred to its customers.  Paul Durrant, the director of the ISP Association of Ireland, pointed out another major problem with this in that the monitoring of Internet usage would be in breach of every privacy, telecommunication and data protection law that exists, since this is effectively like asking ISPs to Spy on all Internet activity to identify illegal downloading. 

The U2 manager mentioned that the ISPs, the telecommunications companies and device makers worldwide are multibillion dollar industries that actually benefit from these countless crimes.  He mentioned about how ISPs already can block access to controversial websites as just an example that they can also target P2P offenders by blocking their illegal activity.  The organisations that back McGuiness include the IFPI, BPI, RIAA and British Music Rights. 

From what I can see, even he did succeed in forcing ISPs to detect and charge for each illegal transfer, it would not take long for those download copyrighted material from P2P networks to change to encrypted file sharing networks that would make it much more difficult, if not impossible, to accurately determine what is being transferred to or from a given individual.