Internet service provider Tiscali has told the BPI that it will need to provide more information before they can take action against 17 of their customers who, the trade association claim, are guilty of illegally sharing large amounts of copyrighted music.
As reported yesterday, the BPI announced on Monday that they had written to both Tiscali and Cable & Wireless asking them to take action against a total of 59 individuals suspected of illegally sharing music online. While C&W said that it would "take whatever steps are necessary to put the matter right", online reports suggest Tiscali have accused the trade association of a "media ambush", and of sending "their letter to the media before we even had a chance to read it" and that "the information they went to press with was not strictly correct".
In a letter back to the BPI from Tiscali, which was circulating online yesterday, the ISP says that while it has never condoned copyright piracy, it does not consider the evidence supplied by the BPI against their customers as being "unequivocal", as BPI boss Peter Jamieson claimed. They say that evidence was only supplied for one of the seventeen accused of violations, and that the evidence supplied - screen shots of file sharing in operation - could not be conclusively linked to the IP address the BPI claim it comes from.
The letter says: "You have sent us a spreadsheet setting out a list of 17 IP addresses you allege belong to Tiscali customers, whom you allege have infringed the copyright of your members. You have also sent us extracts of screenshots of the shared drive of one of those customers. You state that such evidence is 'overwhelming'. However, you have provided no actual evidence in respect of 16 of the accounts. Further, you have provided no evidence... that the shared drive was connected by the relevant IP address at the relevant time. Similar requests we have dealt with in the past, have included such information and, indeed, the bodies conducting those investigations have felt that a court would consider it necessary to see such evidence, supported by sworn statements, before being able to grant any order."
The letter also says that Tiscali will not, as the BPI requests, get their customers to sign a statement that says they will not share any more copyright material, because, they argue, it is not their role to advise their customers on whether or not they should enter into contractual arrangements with a third party. The BPI, they say, would have to liaise with the suspected downloaders directly regarding any such contracts, which isn't as easy as it sounds, because only Tiscali knows the identities of suspected downloaders and they have reaffirmed their policy of not revealing any customers' identities unless forced to do so by court.
All of that said, Tiscali's Richard Ayres was interviewed by Channel 4 News last night and was less confrontational, confirming that the company had spoken directly with the one customer for whom the BPI had provided evidence, giving that customer seven days to respond to the allegations made against them. He said a similar approach will be made to the other 16 when the BPI provide the relevant evidence.
Therefore, despite certain frictions between the trade organisation and the ISPs, the BPI has welcomed the initial responses from both C&W and Tiscali - hopeful that it can find a way of successfully working with the ISPs in this area. In a statement just issued, Peter Jamieson said: "Just about every ISP makes it a condition in its terms of service that using an internet connection for copyright infringement is grounds for termination. We welcome indications that Tiscali and Cable & Wireless will enforce those terms and conditions. This should send out a message to people who use illegal filesharing networks that their internet connection is at risk if they break the law."