The home broadband piracy laws outlined in the government's Digital Economy Act have been welcomed by Sky.

Sky Broadband is the first internet service provider (ISP) to come out in support of the controversial legislation, which could see users cut off if their business or home broadband connection is used to download or share material illegally.

Speaking at the recent Mip TV conference in Cannes, Sky Broadband chief executive Jeremy Darroch said: "If we allow piracy to weaken the business case for content investment, it will ultimately hurt the interests of creators, distributors and consumers of content."

The government's plans have not been so well received by other ISPs and organisations, who believe that the measures will be difficult to enforce and will punish those paying for the internet home broadband connection, even if they are not necessarily the ones committing the crimes.

Earlier this month, political organisation the Pirate Party UK claimed that the act would have a "chilling effect" on the ability of businesses to provide access to the internet.

Add a comment

Comment

Your name

Your e-mail address

Comments (1)

16th April 2010

Wake up and smell the coffee Sky. The only thing this legislation will do is drain the UK economy of cash via the volume litigation that will be unleashed on British citizens by American law firms representing rights holders. I'm not going to go into the human rights factor, or the fact that an entire household is going to be cut off for the actions of one, or the burden placed on families to secure and monitor their networks (viruses, trojans, hackers, PPPoE hacking, trackerless P2P, P2P obfuscation techniques etc). Sky may welcome the Digital Economy Act, I welcome Ofcom making it easier for customers to change ISPs without much difficulty (goodbye Sky, hello TalkTalk).