The Government commissioned a report on digital policy, Digital
Britain, which did not recommend the cutting off of connections
used by alleged file-sharers. The Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills (BIS), which is headed by Lord Mandelson,
later amended its consultation on that report, proposing
disconnection as a policy.
Though Culture minister Ben Bradshaw told MPs last week that
disconnections would happen only after a court order had been
issued, there are no such guarantees in the Government's
proposal.
Opponents of the plan have said that disconnection without proof
to a court violates principles of justice, and have warned that
disconnecting entire households because of the actions of one
household member is not a fair response.
Internet Service Provider (ISP) Talk Talk said that if it is
issued with orders to disconnect its customers it will challenge
their legality in the courts.
"The approach is based on the principle of ‘guilty until proven
innocent’ and substitutes proper judicial process for a kangaroo
court. What is being proposed is wrong in principle and it won't
work in practice. We know this approach will lead to wrongful
accusations," said a Talk Talk statement.
"Talk Talk will continue to resist any attempts to make it
impose technical measures on its customers unless directed to do so
by a court or recognised tribunal. In the event we are instructed
to impose extra judicial technical measures we will challenge the
instruction in the courts," it said.
The company is campaigning against the proposal, which is not
yet official Government policy but is widely reported to be the
favoured option of Lord Mandelson.
Other countries have attempted to introduce such laws. The
French government has tried a number of times but has hit legal
snags several times.
The European Parliament is locked in a battle with the European
Commission and Council over the issue. It has inserted into a
Telecoms Package of reforms a clause declaring disconnection
without court oversight illegal.
The Council and Commission have rejected the amendment and the
three governing bodies will have to thrash out a deal on the issue
before the end of the year or see the entire Telecoms Package
fail.
Talk Talk has said that the methods proposed to find and cut off
illegal file-sharers are flawed. It said that an internet
connection's owner is not necessarily responsible for all use of
that connection.
"[The measures] will do little to tackle illegal filesharing
since the main offenders will easily avoid detection by using other
people’s broadband connections to download content or encrypting
their activity," it said in a statement. "Indeed the proposed
measures will increase Wi-Fi and PC hijacking and so increase even
further the chances of innocent customers being wrongly cut
off."
The company surveyed 1,083 internet connections and found that
many could be very easily broken into and used.
"5 per cent of connections were completely open (ie no security
at all), 36 per cent used WEP which is easily hackable and 56 per
cent used WPA which is currently fairly secure, though a
vulnerability has already been detected meaning it could become
hackable soon. Only 3 per cent used the most secure form of
protection, WPA2," it said.
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