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Leading UK ISP Says It Will Defy Government's Net Censorship
Bill
Says bill partially written by music industry
is on a par with communist Chinese censorship
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Related Reading:
Death Of The Internet: Unprecedented Censorship Bill Passes
in UK
A leading internet service provider in the UK has declared
that it will refuse to follow government orders to restrict,
slow down or cut off its customers' internet access under rules
set out in Lord Mandelson's (pictured) Digital
Economy Bill.
The provider, TalkTalk, which has over 4 million internet users,
has declared the legislation "draconian" and says
it will not cooperate with its provisions.
Andrew Heaney, TalkTalk's director of strategy and regulation
has said the company will repel any instructions to disconnect
customers unless instructed to by the courts.
"If we are instructed to disconnect an account due to
alleged copyright infringement we will refuse to do so and tell
the rightsholders we’ll see them in court." Heaney
wrote on the company
blog.
Heaney also makes it clear that TalkTalk will not turn over
details of its customers' online activities to the government.
“Unless we are served with a court order we will never
surrender a customer’s details to rightsholders. We are
the only major ISP to have taken this stance and we will maintain
it,” Heaney asserted.
Under the legislation, the government will impose a duty on
ISPs to effectively spy on all their customers by keeping records
of the websites they have visited and the material they have
downloaded. The bill states that ISPs who refuse to cooperate
could be fined £250,000.
Heaney described the provisions in the legislation as a pretext
to communist China style internet censorship:
"...many draconian proposals remain such as the responsibility
on customers to protect their home networks from hacking at
a collection cost of hundreds of millions of pounds a year,
the presumption that they are guilty unless they can prove themselves
innocent, and, as in China, the potential for legitimate search
engines and websites to be blocked." he urged.
Heaney added that TalkTalk will "continue to battle against
these oppressive proposals", pointing out that the Digital
Economy Bill measures will require secondary legislation before
they can be implemented and made law.
The TalkTalk director also highlighted the fact that the bill
was passed under considerable influence from the record and
film industries and that only five per cent of MPs even bothered
to turn up to debate the bill in Parliament.
"This is made all the more appalling by the ability of
big music and film companies to influence government and the
absence of any proper debate or scrutiny by MPs – only
5% of MPs turned up for the brief debate yesterday and the other
important parliamentary stages will be bypassed in the wash-up
process," Heaney concluded.
The bill was universally lauded
by the music industry, after it was rushed
through the legislative procedure via the "wash
up" process. No wonder, given the fact that a key amendment
of the bill was drafted by the BPI, which represents UK major
record labels.
During the process, it
was revealed that Stephen Timms, the minister for
Digital Britain, was under the impression that "IP address"
referred to "intellectual property", rather than internet
protocol, highlighting just how outmoded and ignorant of their
actions ministers are on this issue.
The Digital Economy Bill became the Digital Economy Act overnight,
as it was given
Royal Assent and formerly passed into law.
The majority of the Act’s provisions will come into effect
in two months, with some effective immediately. As previously
indicated, the online infringement of copyright provisions of
the Act will require secondary legislation before they can be
implemented.
The British law firm Eversheds
commented:
"We can expect opposition to intensify as the clampdown
on copyright infringement begins in earnest and consumers find
themselves accused of breaking the law. Meanwhile some commentators
have already pointed out that technology savvy infringers can
- and will - take steps to circumvent detection, leaving open
the question, who is the government really targeting?"
Mass protests against the Act will continue with online campaign
site 38
Degrees, working in conjunction with digital liberties
watchdog The
Open Rights Group.
Jim Killock, executive director of ORG called the passage of
the bill "an utter disgrace", adding "This is
an attack on everyone's right to communicate, work and gain
an education. Politicians have shown themselves to be incompetent
and completely out of touch with an entire generation's values.
There are thousands of activists working with ORG planning to
show up at hustings, demand answers from candidates, and who
are willing to punish those who voted for this at the ballot
box."
TalkTalk has its own campaign against the Digital Economy Act
at www.dontdisconnect.us
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