Tuesday, July 11, 2006

The ISP Strikes Back

Further to this post, one of the ISPs involved, Tiscali has now refused to comply with what Cory Doctorow has neatly christened notice-and-disconnection.

This is very interesting too. As Cory points out, when the device used by the rightsholder organisations like the BPI was notice-and-takedown, the economics were in favour of going along with it; it is cheaper and easier to take down content, than to get involved in possible legal proceedings. But it costs far far more to connect a paying customer up to the Internet; so the economics work the other way, for holding fast. This happens also to favour what might be seen as the civil society position, ie, that those accused of copyright violation deserve trial by due process before being presumed guilty on the BPI's say-so, and thrown off the Net. But digital rights are probably not the major motivation driving Tiscali's stance.

Nonethless this is a cheering development.

NIcely put summary from Tiscali's letter: "It is not for Tiscali, as an ISP, nor the BPI, as a trade association, to effectively act as a regulator or law enforcement agency and deny individuals theright to defend themselves against the allegations made against them."

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