The UK Internet Service Providers Association ( ISPA ) has revealed the finalists in the Internet Hero and Internet Villain categories for this year's ISPA Internet awards. The Hero award recognises an organisation or individual's achievements for the Internet industry and the Villain award is obviously given to those that have had a negative impact upon the sector.

ISPA Awards 2009 Internet Hero and Villain finalists

Internet Hero – sponsored by UKFast

· Featured Artists Coalition - "For recognising publicly that the focus of music companies should be the development of new business models for distributing content online rather than attempting to pass responsibility to ISPs to take action against users"

· Community Broadband Network - "For their relentless pursuit and support for next generation access at grass roots level"

· European Parliament - "For rejecting by a significant majority an amendment to the Telecom Package designed to allow disconnection of users' Internet connections for alleged copyright infringement without direct judicial oversight"

· Lord Carter - "For his attempt to bring a holistic view to government policy across the communications spectrum"

· Thomas Gensemer - "For showcasing the enormous power of the Internet in leading Barack Obama's online presidential campaign"

Internet Villain

· Baroness Vadera - "For excluding a number of ISPs and Rights Holders in agreeing a Memorandum of Understanding that was exclusive and ineffective in progressing relations between the two industries"

· European Parliament - "For supporting an amendment to the Telecom Package on cookies which could yet bring the Internet to a standstill"

· President Nicolas Sarkozy - "For his continued commitment to the HADOPI law, which advocates a system of graduated response, despite repeated arguments suggesting the law is disproportionate from a number of important groups including the European Parliament"

· Stephen Conroy and the Australian Government - "For continuing to promote network-level blocking despite significant national and international opposition"

Surprisingly we'd probably have to pick the European Parliament for the Hero award because they have done a lot to protect ISP consumers this year, albeit not in every area. Lord Carter would of course be the easy/political choice, but his final Digital Britain report was far from perfect and he's since chosen to jump ship. As for the Villain award, well that's an easy one.. President Nicolas Sarkozy.