Peter Mandelson, the Secretary of State for Business, and the Digital Britain Forum have both responded to concerns over the governments tougher stance against illegal UK broadband file sharing. The move follows Mandelsons attempt to get the highly controversial 'cut-off illegal downloaders from their ISP' measure added back into the Digital Britain report, which had previously ruled it out.

The changes occurred without any prior consultation and also included some equally controversial new ideas for how the system could be politicised and managed (here). Naturally ISPs and consumers groups were quick to respond with a common dismay (here).

Being a bank holiday we do not have the time to write a full lowdown on what Mandy and the DBF have said, although suffice to say that both can be read by following the links below. Expect the usual political spin that softly paints over any contentious elements:

Peter Mandelsons Comments in The Times

The Digital Britain Forum Response

Neither of the responses appear to tackle the inherent unreliability with the evidence that disconnection would be based off nor the legal/fairness problems involved.