Internet Service Provider (ISP) Virgin Media is having at music pirates, saying they will resort to suspension of connections belonging to customers using their service for illegally downloaded music if need be; permanent disconnections, they note, aren't in the cards.

Easy to trash the decision for some, however they will be soon offering their own legal, digital rights management (DRM)-free alternative, which is in fact the type of service many in and outside of the music industry have been saying is the future for years; this is to say they'll be offering a new subscription-based model whereby users can download so much per month, or an unlimited amount, with different prices for each tier. Reportedly, the latter is planned to cost around £20 ($32.86) -- sounds like a great deal for the music enthusiast, though would be nicer for Canadians at least if Internet costs were lowered.

Though the suspensions are sure to cause controversy, Virgin does seem to be making for a lot of progress here. The service, in partnership with Universal Music (and hopefully other labels, if they can help it) will launch later this year. Now just to work on fair recorded music profit deals for artists...