TalkTalk rejects music industry call for ISPs to police web users

Business News IN BRIEF

*Carphone Warehouse's phone and broadband arm, TalkTalk, will today reject the music industry's proposal that internet service providers (ISPs) turn off illegal downloaders' web access. The government says it will legislate if the music, film and internet access industries cannot establish a solution to the problem of online piracy, which cost 460m in lost revenue in 2006. And the BPI, which represents the music industry, is proposing a "three strikes and you're out" policy. But ISPs are wary of a scheme which would make them police their customers. Charles Dunstone, the chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, said: "We give access to the internet, we do not control it nor do we control what our users do on it. I cannot foresee any circumstances in which we would disconnect a customer's account on the basis of a third party alleging a wrongdoing. The music industry has failed to adapt and seeks to foist their problems on someone else."

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