Not A Doubt

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

UK Police and Intelligence Services Disapprove Disconnection of Internet Pirates

The UK police and intelligence agencies have expressed strong concerns about the government’s plan to disconnect internet pirates.

According to a report published in The Times, the national security agencies including MI5 and MI6 and the police are not very comfortable with Lord Mandelson’s idea of tabling new measures in the next Digital Economy Bill that allow for the disconnection of broadband of those suspected of illegal file sharing of films and music.

These agencies feel that such actions will actually make it impossible to catch the offenders. They point out that offenders will escape any detection strategy by using encryption. The technology required to dispel the problem of encryption is sophisticated and expensive and will not only increase the financial burden but also the workload of those keeping a watch over internet traffic.

Carphone Warehouse and British Telecom, the two leading internet service providers (click to compare broadband) in Britain, have also been vociferous in their disapproval of this proposal, stating that this would only lead to increase of financial burden on the customers by 2 pounds every month. Consumer rights groups on the other hand are also against this move as they feel that this is an infringement in the privacy of an individual.

A recent YouGov poll shows that the plan has very few takers among the public, with a whopping 70 percent against the move. Most people say that the right to trial is a fundamental right for all customers who have been using the internet for illegal downloading, and that such trial should be conducted before finally disconnecting the internet service of the offender.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 9:07 am and is filed under Caveat Emptor, School of Technology, Telecommunication Hub. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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