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The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), an umbrella organisation for UK ISPs, described a letter by the BPI to two of its members, Tiscali and Bulldog, as 'detrimental to the spirit of co-operation' that the Internet industry wants to foster with the music business.

While insisting that it does not support 'abuses of copyright and intellectual property theft', the ISPA said that its members would be acting outside the law if they co-operated with BPI demands.

'ISPs bear no liability for illegal file sharing as the content is not hosted on their servers,' a spokesperson said, citing the EU's 2002 Ecommerce Directive that absolves ISPs of responsibility for content passing over their networks.'

The personal details of service providers' customers are protected by UK laws including the Data Protection Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

'ISPs may be breaking the law were they to pass on information about their subscribers to third parties such as the BPI,' the spokesperson said.

'The BPI is a trade association, not a law enforcement organisation. It should therefore

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go through the appropriate channels to demand action from ISPs.'

The ISPA added that it is inconceivable for providers to monitor or record the type of data that passes over their networks.

'ISPs are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the Post Office is able to open every envelope,' the spokesperson said. 'ISPs deal with many more packets of data each day than postal services and data protection legislation actually prevents ISPs from looking at the content of the packets sent.'

While outwardly Tiscali has expressed dissatisfaction with the BPI's decision to conduct latest its 'anti-piracy' in the public eye, that has not stopped it from complying with at least one request for information about a customer, which would seem to be at odds with the ISPA's position.

Incidentally, the ISPA does not accept that p2p sharing of copyright material is ipso facto illegal - its website states that file sharers 'may be infringing the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988'. Nor does it accept music industry arguments that the Internet is to blame for falling music sales.

'Rights holders have been battling piracy for many years prior to the Internet's widespread adoption,' its website says. 'In fact in the second quarter of 2006, digital sales and downloads helped the UK singles industry record its best results in six years, with the market reaching 58 million units on an annual basis. Many argue that peer-to-peer file sharing actually stimulates music sales as it offers consumers the opportunity to try music from an artist prior to purchasing an album.'