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You're barred! Culture secretary Andy Burnham has music download pirates shivering their timbres

A consultative paper due to be unveiled next week by the culture secretary, Andy Burnham, is expected to call for internet service providers to bar customers who use their accounts to download pirated material. Surprise surprise, the notion has not proved popular. Objectors who feel a natural antagonism for large companies argue that multinationals over-charge music and movie fans and shouldn't be allowed to dictate government policy.

The ISPs, meanwhile, are claiming that privacy concerns and technological roadblocks will render such legislation unworkable. It doesn't hurt for these companies to present themselves as libertarian defenders of the public trust - otherwise, we might see them as they really are. ISPs build their businesses on the back of creative "content" that they presently contribute nothing towards.

A viable model to recompense copyright holders for the free distribution of their work exists, and has functioned well since the dawn of broadcast media. Broadcasters wishing to play music on radio or TV buy a licence to do so, and the money is distributed among composers and copyright holders without viewers or listeners being charged. While this is far from a new idea, at least one company has voluntarily adopted a similar position. Nevertheless, the industry has constantly rebuffed suggestions that ISPs should be compulsorily licensed.

Prosecuting individual file sharers is a mistake. As the Record Industry Association of America's war on music fans proves, lawsuits only serve to erode the scant goodwill the public still harbours for the creative industries. If Mr Burnham's department is serious about its support for musicians and film-makers, it should be looking to create a radio-style licensing system for ISPs, to ensure that those who facilitate and grow rich off music piracy give something back to the industries on which they depend.