In a momentous move reported recently, UK's Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and entertainment industry have agreed to join forces to combat piracy. Towards that end, the first step by the ISPs will be to send out "educational" anti-piracy letters to customers who are suspected of downloading illegal content.

It is after years of negotiations with content providers, that BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media have all reached a consensus about notifying customers who they believe are suspects of infringement on the copyrights of content providers.

The notifications - also called 'alerts' which the ISPs will send to their customers will be sent out either by email or snail mail. A total of four letters will be sent to all customers, with each letter to "escalate in severity" after the previous one.

Despite the fact that these letters or 'alerts' will chiefly aim at "promoting an increase in awareness" of legal downloading services, there is thus far no clarity about the consequences which consumers may have to face for illegal downloading , like torrent downloading.

With ISPs having already drawn attention to the fact that "established, legal routes" are in place to protect the interest of rights holders in case of illegal downloads, an unidentified source aware of the negotiations between ISPs and content providers told BBC: "The purpose of any campaign (by ISPs and content providers) will be to inform and raise awareness rather than punitive action."