TalkTalk 'would fight Digital Economy Bill in court'

Charles Dunstone, the chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, has said he could be prepared to fight the Government in court should the anti-piracy clauses of the Digital Economy Bill become legislation. 

Charles Dunstone: TalkTalk
Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, has managed to collect nearly 32,000 signatures for his web campaign against the Government's internet disconnection proposals to reduce piracy. Photo: Eddie Mulholland
Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Dunstone, whose company owns and operates the internet and telephony provider TalkTalk, said he refused to send his customers who were suspected file-sharers warning letters about their supposed activity or disconnect them, even if these clauses of the bill became law.
He explained that he may choose instead to fight the Government in court, if his lobbying fails and that his company would “consider all its options” should these clauses in the Digital Economy Bill go through

 

TalkTalk has publicly opposed the Government proposals to combat web piracy since the publication of the Digital Britain White Paper in June 2009, launching an online petition, ‘DontDisconnect.Us’ which now has nearly 32,000 signatures.
Mr Dunstone hit out at the music industry, saying: “I think there is a problem if an industry thinks its business model will be saved by legislation. While the music industry focuses on getting these laws through, it won’t be concentrating on reinventing its business– which it obviously needs to do as its model is out of date. Its customers have gone on strike and turned to piracy because the old model doesn’t work.
“There is no need to pursue this letter-sending and disconnection policy, when it can just individually prosecute people who have violated copyright rules.”
Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of UK Music, the music industry’s trade body, told The Telegraph that the proposed legislation would buy the music industry some much needed “breathing space” and was never intended to solve all of the music industry’s problems. “The Government made it clear since day one, that the solution to the music industry’s issues would come from the market.
“Clearly because of the sheer volume of peer to peer filesharing going on, it is having to compete with the level of free. The industry needs some breathing space to be able to figure out the best ways to compete with that pressure and develop the market.
“This process was never about disconnection – it was about reconnecting music fans with the true value of creativity.”
TalkTalk’s position is a contrast to that of fellow Internet Service Providers – Virgin Media and Sky – which have both supported the bill’s clauses, committing to sending out warning letters to web pirates and launching their own legal music subscription services. However, Mr Dunstone said that this was because both providers were more reliant upon their relationships with the music industry as they both run music services – whereas his company concentrates solely on being ‘the pipe’ by which consumers received broadband and telephony services.
The Digital Economy Bill, which is still going through the House of Lords, but expected to reach the Commons by late February, proposes a several step solution, which begins with a warning letter sent to those illegally downloading from their Internet Service Provider and could end with that person’s internet connection being temporarily suspended.
Mr Dunstone was speaking today at an event entitled ‘Principalities and Practicalities of Copyright Protection', which his company organised and used to air their views, while giving a platform to consumer rights group Which?, Liberty, the Open Rights Group and Consumer Focus, which all shared similar concerns with the bill’s proposals regarding piracy

 

 
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