Open Rights Group counter-attacks BPI over music downloads

Posted on 12 Jul 2006 at 13:45

UK digital rights campaigners have urged ISPs to resist attempts by the music industry to have them close down the Internet accounts of alleged p2p file sharers.

The Open Rights Group said that the BPI's request that Tiscali and Cable & Wireless close 59 accounts 'is a really bad idea, not just for users but for ISPs too', according to executive director Suw Charman.

'It's essential that ISPs resist the BPI's attempt to strong-arm them into becoming the music industry's bully-boys,' Charman said. 'If the BPI has evidence of wrong-doing, then it must go through the proper channels in order to pursue its case. Producing a list of IP addresses and demanding that the customers who used them be disconnected is no more than an attempt at summary justice. If the end-user is mis-identified - perhaps the IP address was shared or mis-communicated by the BPI - then it will be the ISPs and their innocent customers who will suffer the consequences.'

Charman's comments elaborated on a boingboing posting by copyright-reform campaigner Cory Doctorow.

'The new proposal for notice-and-termination aims at creating an even more radical version of this judge, jury and executioner privilege the entertainment industry has secured for itself. Under notice-and-termination, you need only claim to be an aggrieved rightsholder to actually knock someone's DSL circuit offline,' Doctorow wrote.

'This sounds like something similar to notice-and-takedown, but there's a gigantic difference: the cost of connecting a DSL circuit is vastly higher than the cost of putting some files on a web-server. Indeed, ISPs have told me that it can take years to recoup the cost of connecting a customer to the Internet,' he said.

The BPI has claimed that early responses from both Tiscali and C&W suggest that they will 'suspend accounts which have clearly been used for illegal filesharing'.

'This should send out a message to people who use illegal filesharing networks that their internet connection is at risk if they break the law. Just about every ISP makes it a condition in its terms of service that using an internet connection for copyright infringement is grounds for termination,' said BPI chairman Peter Jamieson.

Tiscali insists that it will not take any action until the BPI provides concrete evidence of copyright infringement, including screenshots of shared content, evidence that the user id is connected via the IP address concerned at the relevant date and time and evidence that downloading is taking place. It did confirm that one customer is being investigated as a result of information supplied.

Nonetheless a spokesperson said that the ISP was unhappy with the BPI's 'confrontational' approach, since it has always been happy to co-operate with the music industry to prevent copyright violations.

Author: Simon Aughton