GUEST VOCALS: Colin Waters on downloads

I AM a criminal. I haven't killed, assaulted, pimped, pushed, or, at least in a conventional sense, robbed. But I am a lawbreaker. My crime? Watching Lost.

On Thursday, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) - the trade body for the UK record industry - and six of Britain's leading internet service providers (ISPs) announced they now had a "memorandum of understanding". The BPI argues illegal filesharing has damaged its profits, but until Thursday, they had limited room for manoeuvre.

Filesharing services show IP addresses; each computer has its own. ISPs can identify the names of downloaders from their IP address, but were reluctant to hand these details over, not least because it raises the question of breach of privacy. ISPs, however, have now agreed to send warning letters to customers whom the BPI identifies as persistent downloaders of copyrighted content. What form of punishment these offenders face is unconfirmed, though the BPI has pursued the matter in the courts before.

So a confession: I have downloaded. But that doesn't make me a bad person. I download music rarely - I like the physicality of a CD; digital MP3 files seem, well, insubstantial. If I read a review of an album that intrigues me, I will download the album to hear it. If I like the album, I will buy it. If not, I will delete the file.

I began my downloading career with the opening episode of the second series of Lost. A t the time, there was an eight-month gap between the episode's broadcast in America and its first airing here. Since its move to Sky, Lost is now shown days after its American broadcast. Consequently, I don't download the episodes any more.

Given the BPI's involvement, the emphasis in this new agreement appears to be on music, so will TV downloaders be subject to the mooted warning letters? It's a grey area. What if I download an album that has been deleted? What about a TV show that isn't commercially available? I would buy Adam Curtis's 2002 documentary The Century Of The Self but in the absence of a DVD, I downloaded it.

I've enjoyed the fruits of my downloading, but as of now I am announcing my retirement. The threat of legal-looking letters coming through my door is enough to make me take notice. But I won't be buying albums unheard - instead I will borrow them from friends first. Until that's outlawed too.