The heads of several major broadband ISPs and consumer groups , including TalkTalk , BT , The Open Rights Group , Consumer Focus , Which? and Orange UK , have united to publish an open letter that opposes the government’s recent proposal to disconnect Internet users that are "suspected" of involvement with illegal downloads.


The move follows last month’s news that the government had proposed an amendment to Lord Carter's Digital Britain report, which would include a new policy to give Ofcom greater powers for tackling illegal online file sharers sooner. This would also include the controversial measure of suspending "hard core copyright pirates" from their broadband ISP (original news).

The move promptly drew an outcry from ISPs and consumer groups (here) because it failed to recognise the many complex reasons why 'Disconnection' was excluded from the final Digital Britain report in the first place.

Law firms currently track suspected illegal P2P activity by monitoring IP addresses, which are assigned to every computer when you go online, yet IP's can easily be spoofed, redirected, shared over big networks or even hijacked (open Wi-Fi networks etc.). The download itself could also be encrypted, making it nearly impossible for the ISP to verify.

The only true way to tell if somebody has done something illegal is to analyse their computers hard disk drive, otherwise you could just as easily end up targeting innocent users, which has already happened on a number of occasions. Suspending connections based on unreliable data and without a trial seems like a gross abuse. ISPs are not a police force and do not own content on the Internet.