Posted: 15th Apr, 2010 By: MarkJ

BSkyB ( Sky Broadband ) has just become the first ISP to officially come out in support of the governments highly controversial
Digital Economy Act. The Act could see innocent internet users being threatened with disconnection, the potentially unfair blocking of websites and it would also make setting up and running an open / public wireless ( Wi-Fi ) network very unattractive.
However Sky's Chief Executive, Jeremy Darroch, does not agree with the concerns raised by other ISPs and consumer groups. Of course nobody should be surprised by this, especially given Sky's content business and its connection to the media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Sky's CEO, Jeremy Darroch, told the Mip TV conference in Cannes:
"We need to see online piracy for what it is: theft, pure and simple. It is often thought of as a victimless crime, but that couldn't be further from the truth. If we allow piracy to weaken the business case for content investment, it will ultimately hurt the interests of creators, distributors and consumers of content.
As a content owner and an ISP we can see the problem from both sides. It seemed immediately obvious to us that rights owners and ISP's have to work together to explain the issue and deter those who seek to access digital content illegally.
Unfortunately in the UK not all ISPs were prepared to play ball, which is why, in the end, the government had to legislate. That law was passed by the UK parliament last week and - with the right commitment to make it work - it should make a big difference."
That's quite a bit different from what the UK Internet Service Providers Association ( ISPA ), which BSkyB is an active member of, said late last week. The ISPA warned that the new ACT was "
disproportionate, unworkable and will serve only to preserve failing business models and prevent new innovative lawful models of distributing content online."