Disconnection for illegal filesharers unlikely until 2012

Legislation will tackle illegal downloads

Following business secretary Peter Mandelson’s controversial pledge to disconnect illegal filesharers last week, shadow culture media minister Jeremy Hunt has claimed that proposed legislation will not see them penalised until 2012.

Hunt argued yesterday in the Commons that because legislation will not be passed until the next parliamentary year, the earliest an illegal filesharer will be disconnected is February 2012.

"This is hardly government at its most decisive," he said.

Creative industries minister Sion Simon said he hoped disconnections — which would only follow repeated warnings and two opportunities to appeal — would not take place because the issues with the user would have been dealt with in the interim.

He appealed to the creative industries to come up with new business models that would provide users with the services they want at affordable prices.