A service provider is arguing that cutting internet pirates off from cyber space infringes on their basic freedoms.

Can checking your e-mail really be a human right? Carphone Warehouse hopes so. After the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, announced his plans to disconnect persistent internet pirates last week, the owner of Britain’s largest internet service provider, TalkTalk, threatened him with legal action under human rights legislation.

Sounding more like the campaigns manager from Amnesty International than an executive with an internet provider, Andrew Heaney stoked fears of a “kangaroo court” that would lead to “wrongful accusations” and render internet users “guilty until proven innocent”.

The idea is not entirely fanciful. The European Parliament in Strasbourg is currently working out an agreement on how its member states should deal with illegal file-sharing. It has already made clear that it sees internet access as “critical for the practical exercise of a wide array of fundamental rights” and is working on a piece of legislation that could render attempts to restrict internet use subject to the European Convention on Human Rights.

James Harkin outlines the debate on the Times Online site.