BPI angry at U.K. minister over file-sharing

"Hitting The Right Note" reported yesterday of the interview with the government's intellectual property minister David Lammy in the Times newspaper that seemed to indicate the U.K. government is no longer likely to pursue legislation forcing ISPs to contact, then disconnect, high volume file-sharers. 

In the interview Lammy is quoted as saying "We can't have a system where we're talking about arresting teenagers in their bedrooms," Lammy continued. "People can rent a room in an hotel and leave with a bar of soap -- there's a big difference between leaving with a bar of soap and leaving with the television."

The result of this interview has brought an angry response from Richard Mollet who is the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) director of public affairs, who dismissed the comments, saying British music creators are "sure to be insulted at the analogy between British music and complimentary soap from hotels."

"It shows an incredible lack of understanding [of the relationship] between music and illegal file-sharing from the minister in charge of intellectual property," Mollet said. "We are appalled to see him falsely raising the prospect of arresting people in their bedrooms and fail to see what place this has in the discussion."

In July, the BPI and the Music Publishers Association (MPA) joined with six of the U.K.'s leading ISPs to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that voluntarily bound both sides to a code of practice aimed at reducing online piracy. This memorandum also set into action a three-month consumer education trial that promised thousands of warning letters from ISPs to infringing users.

It has been suggested the government's "Digital Britain" report would recommend the creation of a new body to act as mediator between ISPs and rights holders in suspected cases of copyright infringement, but  Mollet declined comment on the likely content of that report, which is expected to be published Jan. 29, but confirmed the BPI position, "The BPI has long called for government to maintain its commitment to introducing legislation to tackle music piracy," he said.