According to a Huffington Post article written by technologist Kevin Bermeister, networking giants (such as Cisco, Huawei and Juniper) have refined their technology to such an extent that ISPs could implement a “global file registry filter” that would reduce piracy and cap nasties so they become “a very small problem.”

Bermeister believes internet providers could be encouraged to put such systems in place if they received a stake in movies and music sales for redirecting pirated-content requests to legitimate hosting sites.

“The open internet was never much for loyalty, and internet providers, together with the world’s largest copyright owners and media partners, may just have sufficient reason to be excited by the new world order in which the wild west days of the internet’s early beginnings are nearing their end,” he pens in his article.

The Managing Director of Cisco NZ, Geoff Lawrie, believes Bermeister’s vision is plausible: “There is firewall software now that can look at the nature of internet traffic and you could write a filter program that made decisions based on that.”

However, Lawrie believes the implementation of such a system will see ISPs (at least those in New Zealand) put in a compromising position, reducing thoughts of a utopic online-world to wishful thinking.

“They are absolutely, passionately committed to avoiding putting themselves in a position of liability, and that is what would be implied by them stepping up to a filter,” he concluded.