p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- “Trying to stop people sharing copyrighted material over the internet is a game of cat and mouse in which the pirates will always win,” according to Carphone Warehouse’s Charles Dunstone.

Quoted by The Guardian, demands for ISPs to halt illegal file sharing are “naive”, the story has him saying, going on:

“Instead, Charles Dunstone said, the solution is education about the benefits of respecting copyright coupled with services that allow consumers ‘to get content easily and cheaply’.”

People have become “obsessed” by peer-to-peer file sharing but “there is a myriad of ways that you can share content on the internet,” Dunstone says.

“If you try speed humps or disconnections for peer-to-peer, people will simply either disguise their traffic or share the content another way,” he states, continuing »»»

It is a game of Tom and Jerry and you will never catch the mouse. The mouse always wins in this battle and we need to be careful that politicians do not get talked into putting legislation in place that, in the end, ends up looking stupid.

But views such as these are nothing new for Dunstone.

“Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s BPI (British Phonographic Industry) wants ISPs to actually disconnect people, ‘who ignore requests to stop sharing music,’ but Charles Dunstone (right)  owner of Carphone Warehouse, which runs the TalkTalk broadband service, Britain’s third biggest provider, has told the corporate music industry enforcer to poke it, in effect, saying it’s not his job to be a Net policeman,” p2pnet said in April last year, citing him in a BBC story.

The demands are unreasonable and unworkable, he said then, going on »»»

We are the conduit that gives users access to the internet. We do not control the internet, nor do we control what our users do on the internet.

I cannot foresee any circumstances in which we would voluntarily disconnect a customer’s account on the basis of a third party alleging a wrongdoing.

His current comments  precede the publication of communications minister Lord Carter’s final Digital Britain report, slated for release this month, says The Guardian.

He’s made, “protecting the UK’s creative industries from the online piracy one of his key aims and he has promised legislation to back up his proposals,” it says, adding:

“Under a government-brokered deal last year some ISPs sent letters to persistent illegal file-sharers warning them that their actions could result in legal action by media companies and that process is expected to be codified by the new legislation.”

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The Guardian – The pirates will always win, says Carphone’s Dunstone, June 5, 2009
BBC – Policing internet ‘not ISP’s job’, April 4, 2008