News

Thousands view punk protest song tweeted by Stephen Fry

February 3rd, 2010

Thousands of people have viewed a punk protest song after Stephen Fry raved about it on Twitter.
Only Idiots Assume  written by Londoner Liam Mullone and sung by his friend Hils Barker, is a stinging attack on the Government’s plans to disconnect people suspected of watching films and music online without paying for the privilege.
 
Fry selected [...]

Digital Economy Bill cannot protect copyright

January 26th, 2010

‘Robin Hood’ developers will neuter Bill with new applications and tools
 
The Digital Economy Bill will have precisely the opposite of its desired effect. The Bill will ignite the development of tools that make it easier for people to access music, films and other copyright-protected material for free and undetected, defeating any attempt to protect copyright.
 
That [...]

Music entrepreneur speaks out about filesharing

January 22nd, 2010

The reverberations from Bono’s sermon about filesharing earlier in the month continue to be felt. Following our own broadside (interpretted by some as a bitchslap) and a whole host of bloggers and Twitter users airing their views on the U2 frontman, a music entrepreneur has written a guest opinion piece on The Register that shows [...]

MONDAY VIEW: The copyright crackdown we will all pay for – Daily Mail

January 18th, 2010

By Charles Dunstone, featured today as the Daily Mail’s Monday View.
 
The Digital Economy Bill is one of the few pieces of legislation the government is actively pushing through parliament before an election is called.
Its aim is to build Britain’s telecommunications backbone and to pave the way for a world-beating digital economy – an admirable objective [...]

U2 frontman bitchslapped – The Register

January 5th, 2010

TalkTalk has branded U2 windbag Bono’s intervention in the debate over illegal filesharing “outrageous”, after he said efforts to block child pornography showed ISPs should be doing more to protect intellectual property, writes Chris Williams in the Register. You can read Williams’ full analysis on the Register.
Meanwhile, our blog post earlier has been reported on pcadvisor.co.uk, [...]

TalkTalk responds to Bono’s filesharing outrage

January 5th, 2010

Bono has accused ISPs of profiting from illegal filesharing and has suggested that ISPs curb copyright infringement in the same way they tackle child pornography.

Broadband consumers to foot £500m bill to tackle online piracy – Times

January 4th, 2010

The disconnection plans set out in the Digital Economy Bill will cost consumers £500 million, according to admissions by the ministers.

Proposals to suspend the internet connections of those who repeatedly share music and films online will leave consumers with a bill for £500 million, ministers have admitted.
The Digital Economy Bill would force internet service providers [...]

Digital Economy Bill

December 1st, 2009

TalkTalk believes the Government’s Digital Economy Bill has serious shortcomings in relation to the provisions on illegal file-sharing. It is their view that the Bill would be deeply damaging to the rights of consumers, and could lead to damage to the internet more widely, whilst failing to solve the underlying problem with file-sharing.  
TalkTalk’s main concern [...]

‘Why does Mandelson favour the Analogue Economy over the Digital?’ – Guardian

November 27th, 2009

Britons’ love for filesharing is here to stay – and Peter Mandelson had better get used to it.
There’s a lot to hate about Peter Mandelson’s controversial Digital Economy Bill, but there’s one provision that perfectly captures the absolute, reality-denying absurdity of the whole enterprise. That titbit is the provision that holds the Bill’s most drastic [...]

TalkTalk’s response to the Digital Economy Bill

November 20th, 2009

The Digital Economy Bill, published today, is a further backward step in the efforts to reduce illegal filesharing while further threatening the rights of the consumer.
The Bill proposes that the Government can introduce new measures to punish people they think are infringing copyright without having to prove their case in court. This so-called secondary legislation [...]