The TalkTalk Blog » Filesharing

TalkTalk customers not affected by ACS:Law data protection breach

As reported widely in the media today, a list with names and addresses of some 8,000+ UK broadband users has been posted on the internet, along with details of adult films they are accused of sharing. The list belonged to ACS:Law, a law firm which writes letters to other ISPs’ customers that are accused by [...]

Julian Huppert MP calls Digital Economy Act “deeply worrying”

We were very interested to read an interview on Broadband Genie with Julian Huppert MP about the Digital Economy Act (you can read the interview here). Julian Huppert is a new MP so he wasn’t in Parliament to vote on the Digital Economy Act when it was going through the “wash up” just before the General [...]

Judicial review of the Digital Economy Act

Today, in conjunction with BT, we’ve filed papers with the High Court asking for a judicial review of the Digital Economy Act. We’ve asked the High Court to look at whether the Act was passed into law without going through the correct parliamentary procedures. As many of you will know, the Act was rushed through Parliament in [...]

Digital Economy Bill – it’s a wash up

It looks like much of the Digital Economy Bill will make it through to get Royal Assent by the end of the week. The Bill is now in much better shape than when first tabled by the Government last year – the ability of the Government to impose disconnection at will has been checked and the Henry VIII clause that literally allowed the Government to do anything else to reduce copyright infringement has been removed.

TalkTalk’s response to “Clause 18″

As you may have seen in the news a new “Clause 18” has been proposed for the Digital Economy Bill. This clause would force ISPs to block websites containing copyright infringing material. This is what we’ve got to say about it:

Dan Bull takes us back to the 80s when “home taping was killing music”

We all know that the government’s disconnection proposals to deter illegal filesharing are daft and dangerous. And many would agree that the way many people in the music industry have reacted is a little misguided. After all, haven’t we seen this type of scaremongering before?

60 seconds with the man behind Dear Lily: Dan Bull

Worcestershire singer-songwriter Dan Bull made a name for himself last year with his song Dear Lily, which lambasted Lily Allen's views on filesharing. His follow up song Dear Mandy, became the inspiration for our Sing Our Petition competition, so we thought it was only right to catch up with Dan and find out more about his musical inspirations, views on filesharing and what made him write Dear Lily.

Stephen Fry has spoken – or should that be ‘tweeted’?

Our “Sing Our Petition” contest against the Government’s filesharing proposals has been running for the past month. Entries finally closed last week and Stephen, who kindly agreed to judge it for us, has announced his favourite.

Why the Digital Economy Bill cannot protect copyright

Around 50,000 internet users have received letters from law firms accusing them of illegal downloading and many people have already been forced to spend £500 on settling wrongful claims. That’s according to information revealed by consumer rights organisation Which? at an event we held in Westminster today.

Music entrepreneur speaks out about filesharing

The reverberations from Bono’s sermon about filesharing earlier in the month continue to be felt. Following our own broadside (interpretted by some as a bitchslap) and a whole host of bloggers and Twitter users airing their views on the U2 frontman, a music entrepreneur has written a guest opinion piece on The Register that shows the music industry is also far from united on the matter.