UK ISPs Urged to Lock Out File-Sharers
By Alexander Grundner |
July 10th, 2006
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Wow. First groups like the RIAA/MPAA team up with the government to fight piracy here and abroad, and now Reuters is reporting that the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade group is calling for ISPs to revoke subscriber memberships to those they have determined to be sharing files illegally. BPI claims that they hold incriminating evidence on 42 subscribers with Cable & Wireless and 17 with Tiscali broadband services. Note that this is that same tactic the RIAA took at the turn of the century here in the States, but as you know ended up in a court ruling requiring record companies to have a court-approved subpoena before approaching ISPs for personal information on holders of infringing IP addresses.
Suw Charman, Executive Director of the UK-based Open Rights Group, comments: “It’s essential that ISPs resist the BPI’s attempt to strong-arm them into becoming the music industry’s bully-boys. If the BPI has evidence of wrong-doing, then it must go through the proper channels in order to pursue its case. Producing a list of IP addresses and demanding that the customers who used them be disconnected is no more than an attempt at summary justice. If the end-user is mis-identified – perhaps the IP address was shared or mis-communicated by the BPI – then it will be the ISPs and their innocent customers who will suffer the consequences.”
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Poor Greg – 5 days 11 hours ago