Lord Mandelson’s Proposed Net Rules Evoke Protest from Police and Intelligence Services
November 18th, 2009The police and the national intelligence agencies of the
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson had pledged to introduce these new rules in response to the call for stringent measures to tackle illegal downloads and file sharing, which are eating heavily into the profits of the music and movie industry.
However, these regulations have received much criticism from various quarters. Consumer right groups have been unhappy with the invasion of privacy that such monitoring will involve. Users have made their feelings felt with a recent YouGov poll in which nearly 70 percent say that suspects should be given a fair trail in court before their broadband is disconnected.
Internet service providers like BT and Carphone Warehouse are also strongly opposed to the new rules. They have pointed out that technical mechanisms for monitoring online use will be an expensive affair, with broadband providers having no choice but to pass on the costs to customers, which would increase the monthly broadband bills by nearly 2 pounds.
The MI5 and MI6 have now joined a long list of those who oppose the rules. These national security services claim that it will be very expensive and time consuming to monitor accounts to see if any illegal activity is taking place. Tech savvy offenders will turn to high-end encryption methods to escape detection, thus making more investment of time and money necessary from the law enforcement agencies to identify and punish offenders.