Legal action threatened by ISP over Mandelson plan

One of the UK’s leading Internet Service Providers has threatened to take legal action of the plans of the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to cut off illegal file sharers by 2011.

It has recently been announced that the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has decided to press ahead with plans to disconnect illegal file sharers. It is thought that the plan will be implemented and ready to go by 2011, but there are many industry groups and Internet Service Providers that are concerned and angry about these plans, to the point where one leading ISP is threatening to take legal action if the plan goes ahead.

The threat of legal action has been made by the broadband giant Talk Talk, which has claimed that the plan is fundamentally flawed because it finds those accused of illegal file sharing to be seen as guilty until proven innocent. The ISP claims that this could be construed as an infringement of human rights.

A senior official from Talk Talk stated: The approach is based on the principle of ‘guilty until proven innocent’ and substitutes proper judicial process for a kangaroo court. We know this approach will lead to wrongful accusations.” He added: If the government moves to stage two we would consider that extra-judicial technical measures and would look to appeal the decision [to the courts] because it infringes human rights. TalkTalk 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.”

However, an official from an entertainment industry law firm said: “This issue over whether removing someone’s internet access breaches some fundamental right has been quite clearly settled by the European court of justice,” Ballard added. “It ruled in a Spanish filesharing case last year that a user’s fundamental rights are not absolute but have to be weighed against the rights of others, including copyright owners.”

Source – Guardian