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| BPI attacks ISPs not disconnecting illegal file sharers |
| Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 21:12 by Simon Spicer |
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) Association has accused some ISPs of "turning a blind eye" to illegal music file sharing and not taking effective steps to stop it.
The allegations were aimed at two companies in particular, Tiscali and Cable & Wireless, who the BPI have requested disconnect a total of 59 customers who its feels have been the main participants in the illicit file-sharing.
BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson said, "We have demonstrated in the courts that unauthorised file sharing is against the law. We have said for months that it is unacceptable for ISPs to turn a blind eye to industrial-scale copyright infringement. We are providing Tiscali and Cable & Wireless with unequivocal evidence of copyright infringement via their services. It is now up to them to put their house in order and pull the plug on these people."
Of the 59 customers identified by the BPI, Forty-two of the web accounts are with Cable & Wireless and 17 are with Tiscali.
Tiscali has refuted the claims and has instead accused the music body of using "press tactics" without providing sufficient legal backing for the allegations. Although the BPI claim to be able to provide 'unequivocal evidence' of Tiscalis 17 customers they have only actually provided evidence about one customer. As a result Tiscali has suspended the one account and has written to the customer asking them to defend the allegations. They are still awaiting evidence for the other 16 accused account holders.
This isn't the first time Tiscali has had dealings with the BPI. In April, the ISP launched the Tiscali Juke Box service to allow consumers in Italy and the UK to listen legally to streamed songs and share them with other registered users. The BPI objected to the excessive interactivity and in particular the search functionality available to users to be able to search for songs. Since Tiscali deemed the service essentially worthless without the search functionality, the Juke Box has been put on hold until the issues can be resolved.
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