
BT, the UK’s largest ISP, has come out strongly against any plans to make ISPs police file-sharing. John Petter, boss of the company’s consumer division, claims the costs for ISPs could be £1 million a day, and has some stinging words for the music industry. “They’ve lobbied hard and very effectively but that doesn’t make them right. Their claims are melodramatic and assume people would buy all the music that is illegally downloaded, which is nonsense… Laws already exist to enable music companies and other copyright holders to prosecute offenders but they don’t want to take the hit to their public image.” That united front that was being hoped for at MidemNet this year is looking ever more remote.