News

‘Dan Bull takes us back to the 80s when “home taping was killing music”’ – Andrew Heaney, TalkTalk blog

March 15th, 2010

Dan Bull’s song takes you back to the 80s when “home taping was killing music” We all know that the government’s disconnection proposals to deter illegal filesharing are daft and dangerous; and many would agree that the way many people in the music industry have reacted is a little misguided. After all, haven’t we seen [...]

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 [...]

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.

Stephen Fry to judge three strikes law protest competition

December 21st, 2009

“The government’s proposed ‘Three-Strike’ Copyright Protection Law is ill-conceived, constitutionally outrageous, morally unfair and epically foolish.” – Stephen Fry.
 
Stephen Fry has agreed to judge a competition to create a protest song, poem or other form of artistic expression against the proposed ‘Three Strikes’ law.
The law is designed to protect the music and film industry against copyright [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

‘Queen’s speech cements file-sharing proposals’ – PCPro

November 19th, 2009

The Government will order ISPs to disconnect file-sharers after receiving two warning letters.

The Government has used the Queen’s speech to confirm that it will press ahead with plans to disconnect illegal file-sharers.
The measures will be passed as part of the Digital Economy Bill, which will force ISPs to penalise persistent file-sharers.

PC Pro has the full [...]

‘Pirate Bay updates peer-to-peer mechanism’ – V3

November 18th, 2009

Pirate Bay changes the system behind its the P2P network. They insist it is nothing to do with a court order.

File-sharing site The Pirate Bay has shut down its tracker technology and replaced it with a new form of peer-to-peer network. The group claimed that the move was not down to a court order but [...]

“UK.gov denies innocent will be hit by filesharing regime” – The Register

November 11th, 2009

Siôn Simon says “People who have done nothing wrong should not be in any danger of having their internet interfered with at all”.

Forthcoming laws to reduce the level of peer-to-peer copyright infringement with threats of disconnection will affect “hardly anybody, other than the most serious and egregious recidivistic offenders”, according to culture minister Sion Simon.
The [...]

EU agreement may derail government internet piracy plans

November 10th, 2009

The new EU agreement on telecoms regulation will make it almost impossible for film studios and music labels to force ISPs to disconnect customers who are suspected of illegal filesharing without first obtaining a court order.
That is the view of telecoms and copyright lawyers contacted by TalkTalk, the UK’s biggest broadband provider to homes and [...]