ISPs will have to pay 25% of the cost of sending warning letters to alleged file sharers, with rightsholders picking up the lion’s share of the bill.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said the same split will apply to the cost of the appeals process.
The Digital Economy Act, passed in the dying days of the last government, will require ISPs to send a letter any internet user that rightsholders accuse of sharing copyright material. The first letters are likely to go out early next year.
ISPs believe the cost should be borne by rightsholders, who in turn think ISPs should pay. Consequently neither is happy with the BIS decision.
Andrew Heaney, director of strategy and regulation at TalkTalk said it is outrageous.
“In effect, ISPs and their customers will be forced to pay for the costs of the music and film industries to enforce their own copyright. To us this is manifestly unfair. It is the rightsholders’ material; if they think it is being accessed illegally, it is only right that they should be the ones to pay for protecting it.”
Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the Internet Service Providers Association, agreed.
“ISPA has consistently argued for the ‘beneficiary pays’ principle, and is disappointed with today’s announcement. Full cost recovery for serious law enforcement cases is an established rule, and ISPA sees no reason why it should not be the case here.”
A spokesperson for the BPI, which represents the interests of major UK record labels, disagreed.
“We continue to believe that ISPs should bear a greater proportion of the costs of communicating with their customers about illegal P2P use on their network. We will work closely with the government and Ofcom to ensure that the costs framework overall is workable and affordable, in particular for small labels.”
Telecoms industry regulator Ofcom is currently finalising a code of practice which will set out technical measures that can be taken against alleged file sharers who persist after receiving three warning letters. Measures may include bandwidth throttling and temporary suspension of internet access.
TalkTalk and BT have called for a judicial review of the act, arguing that as it was rushed through at the end of the last parliament, it “became law without being properly scrutinised”.
Their stance had the backing of Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg who described the bill as a “stitch up”. However the coalition government in which Clegg is deputy prime minister has no plans to repeal or amend the act.
“The Digital Economy Act serves to reduce online copyright infringement through a fair and robust process and at the same time provides breathing space to develop better business models for consumers who buy music, films and books online,” said communications minister Ed Vaizey. “As rights holders are the main beneficiaries of the system, we believe our decision on costs is proportionate to everyone involved.”
