Two weeks ago Hull's only broadband ISP, Karoo (Kingston Communications), drew flack after it emerged that the provider was disconnecting customers suspected of piracy without a warning (here). Karoo promptly changed its policy to issue three written notifications before a user's service is temporarily suspended. Now it has emerged that the ISP has gone one step further, requiring a full court order before it imposes a service cut-off.


The move has been welcomed by some as a victory for common sense, although we doubt many Rights Holders would see it that way. Big questions also remain over the accuracy of the data that is supplied to ISPs by copyright owners, not to mention how an ISP can be sure that the supplied information is correct.

There are many technical and legal (privacy laws etc.) problems for ISPs in identifying illegal downloading on a network. The only true way to know who is responsible and what has actually taken place is by directly analysing a suspect’s hard drive. IP data is far too easily hijacked, redirected, spoofed, hacked and generally abused to be a truly reliable way of resolving this.