Earlier this month the UK passed the Digital Economy Bill, as a side effect anonymizer services has seen an increase in customers.
Part of the bill requires the ISPs to put in speed blocks, bandwidth shaping, site blocking, or account suspension for all users caught infringing copyright laws. If an ISP fails to put any of these measures in the place they could be fined up to £250,000. Another interesting part of the bill says, "Copyright owners must pay Ofcom"s costs; both copyright owners and ISPs must pay costs of implementing technical measures; accused subscribers must also share appeal costs."
According to TorrentFreak, after the bill was passed BTGuard saw a dramatic rise in demand for its service. BT claim they have nearly as many UK users as they do US users, which is significant. BTGuard anonymizes your BitTorrent traffic through their proxy service. They also offer encryption services to prevent the ISP from being able to use bandwidth shaping to slow down your BitTorrent traffic.
The controversial Digital Economy Bill has faced stiff opposition from online users and news outlets. Members of Parliament voted on the bill last month but the vast majority failed to vote. UK readers can find out if their local MP voted at voteThemOut.co.uk