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Broadband providers rally against "kangaroo court"
Thursday 3rd September 2009, by Daniel King
A group of industry experts have advised the government that plans to crackdown on the way in which broadband is used across the UK could be a violation of customer rights.
In a joint letter sent to the Times newspaper this week, consumer groups teamed up with service providers like BT and TalkTalk to urge caution on recently announced plans to target those using the web to share files.
The note explained processes needed to be put in place that would help protect people against false accusations of piracy and trading copyright-labelled content.
It was advised the current market has seen a number of people having to fight to prove their innocence of such charges, having had their wireless internet connection compromised by others.
Directed at Lord Mandelson, who recently outlined the details of new proposals to tackle piracy, it was agreed that while the creative industry should be protected from the damage illegal file-sharing represents - this should not be at the cost of those who have done nothing wrong.
"We must avoid an extra-judicial kangaroo court process where evidence is not properly tested and [people] are denied the right to defend themselves against false accusations. Without these protections innocent customers will suffer," it noted.
It described the measures as "heavy-handed" and the correspondence also called for any moves to be "underpinned by rigorous and objective assessment by Ofcom".
The letter was signed by Charles Dunstone of TalkTalk, Ian Livingston of BT, Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group, Ed Mayo of Consumer Focus and Deborah Prince of Which?
Irish service provider Eircom recently announced consumers trying to access file-sharing website the Pirate Bay would be "denied entry".
Categories: Broadband, Internet Security
