A number of Internet Service Providers have recently expressed their concerns over an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill in an open letter that was published in the Financial Times.

It was announced last week that Lords had called for an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill, whereby they wanted any websites that encouraged illegal downloads or contained substantial amounts of copyright infringing content to be blocked by Internet service providers. Following this, some Internet providers such as Talk Talk were quick to voice their concerns over the amendment.

It has now been revealed that a number of Internet providers have expressed their concern over amendment 120A, and this has been done through an open letter that was published in the Financial Times. Amongst those to express their views over the amendment in the open letter were Talk Talk and Virgin Media, and further criticism has been added by groups such as BT and Google.

The ISPs have stated that blocking such websites, as would be required by the Bill amendment, could potentially disrupt the Internet and could result in a threat on business as well as freedom of speech. Andrew Heaney from Talk Talk said that it would be ‘utterly futile’ to block sites that were found to be infringing copyright through the content that was on these sites.

In the open letter the ISPs stated: “We are particularly concerned that a measure of this kind as a general purpose policy could have an adverse impact on the reputation of the UK as a place to do online business and conflict with the broader objectives of Digital Britain.”

Source – Cable