BT: Filesharing measures are ‘draconian’

The negative approach taken by the Digital Economy Act to deal with filesharing will not help the music industry, according to a senior executive at BT.

During a debate held last night in central London focused on the issue, Dorothy Smith, director of group public policy at BT, claimed the act had lost its way from its humble beginnings in the Digital Britain report and that the measures laid out to deal with filesharing will not help anyone.

She said: "Look at what the Digital Britain report was looking to address how much of that has been achieved and how much has been [included] in the Digital Economy Act? I would suggest not a great deal in fact."

She outlined areas around a universal service commitment of 2Mbps and funding for access to next generation broadband which had seen some success but most of that went forward without full legislation.

However, more controversial elements of the bill were legislated on very quickly.

"In some cases the proposals have seen the light of day but they haven't needed legislation in the form of the act and in other cases basically they have been dropped or they have been effectively postponed for the next administration to pick up when that administration comes into power," Smith added.

"Then in a minority of cases measures have been passed into law through the act and there are questions around how successful that implementation is likely to be."

Smith then laid out her company's view when it came to the measures to cut off the internet connections of those caught illegally filesharing after three warning letters telling them to stop.

"BTs view is that we think the proposals are ill advised," she said.

"We don't think they will help content providers and rights holders over all [and] we don't think they will help the creative industry as such. [They] need a positive environment and this is a very draconian measure and we think it will put off people from using the internet."

She added: "It is not well thought through, there was not due process involved At the moment our view is that there are a lot of unanswered questions about how the powers will really prove useful, viable and positive for the industry and my company thinks is somewhat negative in terms of its long term implications for the sector."