[photopress:japanisp.jpg,full,right]

Japan joins France and the UK in threatening file sharers with being kicked off the Internet. The relevant industries have been pressuring Japanese ISPs for some time now to do something about the rampant, awful problem of online piracy. The ISPs have agreed and will now ban nefarious users from their networks if they detect, using “special detection software,” file sharing activity.

Offending users will first get an e-mail saying they’ve been caught, then, if they don’t stop, they’ll get the ban hammer.

No, that’s not drastic at all. I’d like to know exactly what this “special detection software” is. Even more than that, I’d love to see the reaction if someone like Comcast or Time Warner announced a similar scheme here in the U.S. Think of the Slashdot comments!

Winny copiers to be cut off from Internet [Daily Yomiuri Online via TorrentFreak]