Now that the Digital Economy Bill has passed — without full debate, despite widespread public outrage — the stage is set for big corporate copyright holders to begin sending ISPs ordering them to disconnect customers who are believed to infringe copyright. ISPs are expected to cave and shut off entire families from their lifeline to the digital society on the say-so of these entertainment industry bullies.
But one ISP, TalkTalk, is refusing to go along with the la. They say that “if we are instructed to disconnect an account due to alleged copyright infringement we will refuse to do so and tell the rightsholders we’ll see them in court.”
After the election we will resume highlighting the substantial dangers inherent in the proposals and that the hoped for benefits in legitimate sales will not materialise as filesharers will simply switch to other undetectable methods to get content for free.
In the meantime we stand by our pledges to our customers:
* Unless we are served with a court order we will never surrender a customer’s details to rightsholders. We are the only major ISP to have taken this stance and we will maintain it.
* If we are instructed to disconnect an account due to alleged copyright infringement we will refuse to do so and tell the rightsholders we’ll see them in court.
Bravo TalkTalk. Many ISPs signed open letters to government objecting to the Digital Economy Bill’s disconnection and web-censorship proposals. I wonder if they’ll join TalkTalk in making this pledge.
Digital Economy Bill – it’s a wash up
(Thanks, JohnCJ!)