Government wants ISPs to collar illegal file sharers

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 29 Jan 2009 at 13:35

The Government is planning to push responsibility for pursuing illegal file-sharers on to internet service providers, as part of its Digital Britain proposals.

Lord Carter's interim report says the Government wants ISPs to monitor their customers' internet activity.

"Our response to the consultation on peer-to-peer file sharing sets out our intention to legislate, requiring ISPs to notify alleged infringers of rights (subject to reasonable levels of proof from rights-holders) that their conduct is unlawful," the report states.

"We also intend to require ISPs to collect anonymised information on serious repeat infringers (derived from their notification activities), to be made available to rights-holders together with personal details on receipt of a court order."

The Government says it will consult on the issue before setting out detailed proposals.

The proposal is likely to be met with resistance from ISPs, who've long argued they shouldn't be asked to police the internet.

"Our position is and always has been that, unless there are court orders or legislation, we would not be party to it," a spokesman for the Carphone Warehouse ISP, TalkTalk, told PC Pro this afternoon.

"It doesn't seem we'd be required to disconnect customers [under the Digital Britain proposals]," he added.

The Government is also proposing tighter civil remedies for copyright infringement.

"Before the final Digital Britain Report is published we will explore with both distributors and rights-holders their willingness to fund, through a modest and proportionate contribution, such a new approach to civil enforcement of copyright to facilitate and co-ordinate an industry response to this challenge."