Belfast News: ISP or ISPY?

The New Labour government may be a spent force but their policies and laws are very much in force and despite the coalition encouraging the public to highlight laws to be scrapped they is no sign of such laws being repealed.

So the 'BIG BROTHER' era is not over and surveillance covert and blatant continues to surround us, from copies of our emails being keep to ISPs snooping on what files we are accessing, downloading or sharing.

British Telecom, one of the ISPs whose customers details ended up exposed on the internet, is now seeking a moratorium. The moratorium is being sought on legal applications demanding customer details, who are alleged by the applicant to have illegally shared files. 

In the interim BT want new and existing applications to be temporarily halted, to allow a 'test case' to be heard today, but the case, being heard at London's High Court, was adjourned until 11 January 2011, following a request by the firm. 

The case involves an order to disclose names and addresses of a substantial number of broadband customers from PlusNet, BSkyB and Be Internet. The BBC quotes a legal representative of BT as saying 'This will be a test case for ISPs'.

Editorial

From a public perspective the fact that a service provider can 'snoop' on all customers in order to catch a few, is a national disgrace. Firms spending a small fortune to track down illegal down loaders of their client's products stand more chance of damaging the 'Brand' they are working for. 

The public have little time for those who clone, copy or download illegally but they have even less tolerance for brand name firms whose main target is essentially children or young people downloading content. They would do well to take stock of their client's interests and use their money to educate rather than prosecute, especially as their target is those who value their product and may be money paying customers in the future. 

Last Updated: 9th October 2010