UK Bill will censor Internet, providers claim

The UK's largest Internet service providers have fired a broadside at last-minute changes to a law dealing with copyright piracy on the Internet, condemning the measures as "dangerous" and "unworkable."

They are calling for all parties to scrap a surprise amendment to the government's digital economy bill, which was passed by the House of Lords last week. The changes would give TV and music companies the right to demand that Internet service providers block access to websites that host pirated material. If ISPs wish to refuse, they would have to make their challenge through the courts, incurring high costs. BT said that in practice such companies would simply accede to most blocking requests, potentially ushering in an era of online censorship without any appropriate safeguard. "ISPs would feel compelled to block a site simply because a rights holder claims there is infringing material on it, rather than because of a court decision," said Simon Milner, group director of industry policy at BT. "We fear it could also be a backdoor to censorship of the Internet," said Andrew Heaney, executive director of strategy and regulation at TalkTalk, the UK's second largest Internet service company. "We are concerned that, as they stand, the proposals could increase costs and penalize ISPs," Virgin Media said.

Service providers have been left scrabbling to formulate a response to the amendment forced through by the Liberal Democrats on Wednesday.