a bid to educate the British government over the issue of peer-to-peer file sharing, local Internet Service Provider “TalkTalk” on Friday launched a wireless stunt that is aimed to illustrate how UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson’s plan will directly affect innocent file-sharers.
Calling Mandelson’s action “naïve,” TalkTalk said that the new law will only target innocent users, adding that the combination — lack of presumption of the innocence of the file-sharers and the absence of a certain judicial process – and the blatant wi-fi hacking in UK points to the conviction or disconnection of unwitting online users.
“The Mandelson scheme is every bit as wrong-headed as it is naive,” said, TalkTalk strategy and regulation director Andrew Heaney.
Heaney, along with his company, has long been an outspoken opposition of the government plans to cut off the Internet connection of “illegal” file-sharers.
Also, like any other law, the new system proposed by Mandelson should educate first before cutting off users.
The British Phonographic Industry said that a lot of innocent people will surely be disconnected once the new law is implemented.
The issue stemmed from calls by the music industry for the UK government to make a legislation that would address the growing number of piracy in the Internet.
To date, there are some 6 million active file-sharers in the country.
In line with this, the government has mulled to giving Ofcom, an Internet regulating body, the power to disconnect users who were found guilty of downloading and sharing music files through P2P networks.
But Mandelson has intervene with the affair and pushed for a tighter implementation of the file-sharing policy by urging ISPs to police their own networks.
But ISPs, in a court hearing, said that they are merely “conduits” of the contents being shared by users, adding that they are in no position to look into private accounts.
The companies added that the law is difficult to implement since a simple unsecured wi-fi network can be subjected or potentially hosts illegal file-sharing without the administrator noticing it.