EigenAnalysis

A good majority of people across the UK are unhappy with the internet regulations outlined by Lord Mandelson aimed at curbing illegal downloads and net piracy, according to a recent poll.

Following pleas for strict rules that would bring growing net piracy to an effective halt, the government came up with regulations intended to authorise the disconnection or squeezing of bandwidth for suspected offenders. While these were welcomed by the music industry, which has been most adversely affected by illegal downloads, other groups, primarily the service providers, expressed serious doubts about the efficacy of these rules.

TalkTalk and T-Mobile made no secret of their disapproval of the proposed regulations. They claimed that such interference would bring down innovation and growth in the broadband internet industry. Further, the regulations might even fail in their primary objective by penalising innocent internet users who are merely being used as pawns by WiFi hijackers. Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group said that Lord Mandelson was far out of tune with the people’s opinion on this issue.

A vast majority of the general public seems to agree with Killock. About 70% of those surveyed by YouGov in a poll said that disconnection for suspected illegal file sharing activity was far too harsh an action. According to them, the offender must be given a fair trial before any punitive action is taken. Only about 15% of the public thought the regulations were fair.

For the first time, public poll on this issue threw up results that reveal that such harsh stance on the usage of internet will reduce a political party’s favour among the general public. Almost one third of the UK is more likely to vote against a party that supports such a stance.