The government’s pursuit of illegal filesharers has put it in conflict with ISPs and the creative industries.

“I think there’s a lot of lies being told, and this was just one of them.” That uncharitable assessment by a source who preferred to remain anonymous, of the claim by Stephen Timms, the financial secretary to the Treasury – who last Friday insisted that “90%” of the ISP [internet service provider] market supported the principle of cutting off people after repeated warnings – is just another in the three-way war of attrition between ISPs, the music and film industries, and the government over the issue of filesharing online.

The claim by Timms – which cannot be true in respect of the numbers of users, as the two biggest consumer ISPs, BT and TalkTalk, do not support it – followed the publication of the government’s digital economy bill on Friday.

The full story can be found on the Guardian website.