Digital freedom campaigners, UK broadband ISPs and independent organizations like ISPA and Consumer Focus have joined together to attack the government’s proposed measures to punish the illegal file sharers with extreme actions such as cutting off their internet connection.

Yesterday, the government said it is indeed considering this extreme measure which was rejected by the Digital Britain report published in June. Instead, the Digital report advised the ISPs to slow down the connection speeds of the allged illegal file sharers or take other legal steps, but disagreed with the idea of suspending broadband service. Lord Carter, the former communications minister who has drawn the report also suggested that the UK telecom regulator Ofcom should be given ample time (until 2012) to review all the aspects of this delicate issue. (Original plans)

However, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) hinted on Tuesday that this timeframe is ‘too long to wait’ and urged for immediate action to protect the copyright owners. UK’s new minister of communications, Stephen Timms also expressed his view that ‘the plans (outlined in Digital Britain report) could delay action, impacting unfairly upon rights holders.’

The new internet file sharing crack down policy based on the recommendations of Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, would imply taking action against the ‘hardcore illegal file sharers by the ISPs who would share the cost of tracking down on 50:50 ratio with right holders.

However, the UK ISPs are not ready to accept the proposal as it is. TalkTalk broadband provider openly criticised the ‘cut-off’ option as it would ‘breach fundamental rights’ and would fail to produce any positive results.

Virgin Media, the cable broadband ISP pointed out that ‘a heavy-handed, punitive regime will simply alienate consumers’.

“The government should be ensuring a balance of action against repeat infringers and the rapid development of new legitimate services that provide a compelling alternative to illegal filesharing, ” Virgin Media said in a statement.

John Peter, the head of BT broadband consumer business, said:

“We were broadly supportive of the original plans but these changes run the risk of penalising customers unfairly.”

The governement’s new move was also criticized by the UK Internet Service Providers Association ( ISPA ) for making changes on the orginal plans without an open consultation. Nicholas Lansman, Secretary General of the ISPA said:

“ISPA is committed to working with members, rights holders and Government to reduce unlawful filesharing over P2P networks and will be responding formally to this consultation. ISPA is disappointed that the Government has chosen to take action to amend an open consultation before most stakeholders have had an opportunity to comment on the original proposals.”

Larry Whitty, chairman of Consumer Focus warned that ‘it would be unfair to enforce this law in an area where millions of consumers are not clear on what is allowed and what is not.’ He said that the rise of illegal file sharing ‘ is a consequence of the creative industries failure to deliver products that consumers want’ and the government’s original plans to ‘tackle the illegal file sharing by sending warning letters and taking court action before technical measures would be fairer, more proportionate and better respect consumer rights.’

TalkTalk broadband ISP would also opt ‘other legal alternatives and educating people, writing letters to alleged file-sharers and, if necessary, taking them to court.’ The broadband service provider pointed out that the determined file-sharers could easily mask their identity or their activity to avoid detection.

As the tracking method of illegal file sharers uses IP address, it would just complicate the matters when many people share a broadband connection, it was stated.

There are concerns that many UK families could be victimised by the new measures as the ‘cut-off’ policy would also punish the parents if their children were found illegally downloading. Many of such families even may not be aware that their children are illegally downloading copy righted digital information.

There are about six million broadband users in UK who are illegally sharing copyrighted digital materials like films, songs and files on the internet. Downloading files illegally account for half of the internet traffic in UK, according to a recent survey.

However, it woud be rather difficult for anyone to predict when will the new proposals become a law in the existing form. The BBC reports the Conservative MP John Whittingdale as expressing his ’severe doubts that the new bill with its ‘cut-off’ measure will get through:

“I have severe doubts that the government can get this bill through in the time available as if there is any opposition to it – and there will be now – there will be a general election before it goes through.”