Government hits back over file-sharing clampdown

 

Gallery

By Barry Collins

Posted on 28 Aug 2009 at 08:01

The Government has issued a spiky response to critics of its plans to cut off the broadband connections of persistent illegal file sharers.

In a blog post addressing several of the "accusations" that have been thrown at the Government, the Digital Britain team deny the Government has ignored the advice contained its own Digital Britain report, which stopped short of recommending connections be suspended.

"It would be nice if the policies we set out in the Digital Britain Report were so widely accepted that people considered them immutable, but this certainly isn’t true," the blog post states.

"We were consulting on the package set out in Digital Britain and have added further proposals as the result of further consideration. The core proposals – notification of those who seem to be breaching copyright, with a sanction of technical measures if that is not working, remain in place."

We realise that it is possible for mistakes to occur or for people to have their wireless connection hijacked

The Digital Britain team once again denies that Lord Mandelson's meeting with American film producer David Geffen had any impact on the Government's change of heart, claiming that "it simply became clear to us that we needed to add more ideas to the discussion for people to consider."

The Digital Britain team also says that citizens will be given a right to appeal against the decision to cut off their broadband connection, before the disconnection takes place. "We realise that it is possible for mistakes to occur or for people to have their wireless connection hijacked," the blog states. "We will set up an appeals mechanism so that the consumer has an easy appeals route at each stage."

Nevertheless, the Government remains confident that disconnecting file sharers is lawful, despite the fact that a similar attempt by France to impose a three-strikes-and-you're-out system was blocked by the EU. "We believe what we are doing complies with national and EU law but obviously if the law in Europe changes, then we will need to make sure what we do is compliant," the Digital Britain team claims.

"Amendment 138 has been mentioned a lot, but in fact it has not been adopted (by the EC); although it is set for conciliation in the autumn."

Barry Collins on why you could lose your broadband for doing absolutely nothing wrong