Government says ISPs should quit bellyaching about Digital Economy Act

The government has responded to concerns about the financial burden the Digital Economy Act (DEA) places on ISPs by saying that they will actually benefit from the act and that the costs are "reasonable".

The government response appears on the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee (MSIC) web site. The MSIC has been examining the pros and cons of the DEA and expressed concerns around some elements of the act to the the Department for Culture, Media and Sports.

Cost sharing appears to be the primary concern for the committee, where the DEA states that the cost of sending out warnings to suspected users of file-sharing sites will be paid for by rights holders (75 per cent) and ISPs (25 per cent).

In response to the MSIC's complaint that the DEA "does not provide a sufficient rationale for imposing costs on ISPs", the government said: "We disagree, and the government is clear that, whilst it is appropriate for copyright owners to bear the bulk of the costs, it is also reasonable to give ISPs a clear incentive to keep the costs of the process to an effective minimum.

"Reducing widespread unlawful copying will benefit the digital economy as a whole as well as open up new opportunities for legitimate content to be sourced via ISPs and elsewhere, and removing a significant amount of economically sterile traffic from networks will benefit ISPs in terms of the service they can offer."

Further to this the MSIC was concerned that while BT and TalkTalk are involved in a judicial review looking at whether the DEA is flawed, the government can't impose these requirements on ISPs.

However, again the government dismissed this objection: "The government considers it will win the case, and that therefore it would be wrong to hold up implementation, and the benefits that it will afford."

This follows a recent complaint made by a senior adviser to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), who warned that libraries might face legal action as a result of users downloading files from their terminals.

"The financial and time costs of complying with or appealing against this type of situation cannot be underestimated, nor can the types of penalty that could be imposed on libraries as result of an infringement by an individual user," wrote Stuart Hamilton.

The government hopes that the DEA will limit illegal copyright infringement by targeting P2P web sites and users sharing files.