ISPs urged to tackle online piracy

Talks between internet service providers (ISPs) and the television and film industries about how to address online piracy have broken down again.

Digital copyright theft cost £460m in 2006 and the number of people illegally accessing film and TV shot up from 9 per cent of the adult population in 2006 to 16 per cent last year. The creative industries say the ISPs' involvement is crucial because only they can tell who is downloading pirated content or sharing files illegally. But the broadband companies reject what they consider tantamount to policing of the internet.

Although talks have been going on for some time, they have gathered pace since the Government warned in February that, unless the industry imposed some form of self-regulation, it would consider bringing in new legislation. Yet with the first stage of Government consultation due to end before the summer, talks between the Motion Picture Association and the Internet Service Providers' Association have come to nothing.

According to insiders, some smaller ISPs were sympathetic to proposals for a graduated response to online pirates, including a number of written warnings before action – such as reducing connection speeds or turning off browsing facilities but leaving email – was taken. The danger is that Britain will follow the same path as South Korea, where the high penetration of super-fast broadband has wreaked havoc in the audio-visual industry.

Lavinia Carey, of the British Video Association, said: "In South Korea, digital piracy is out of control. Britain is particularly affected because it is the smaller companies, which do not have the US studio system propping them up, that are the most vulnerable."