Tiscali snubs BPI demands to stop "illegal" music downloads

Says no "overwhelming evidence" of customer wrong-doing has been supplied

Tiscali has refused to bow to British Phonographic Industry (BPI) demands that it suspends the accounts of those customers accused of illegaly downloading music, citing lack of proof.

The internet service provider (ISP) said nothing it has so far received comes close to meeting the BPI's claim it has "overwhelming evidence" that 17 Tiscali customers have been sharing " significant amounts" of copyright music.

The BPI wrote an open letter to both Tiscali and Cable & Wireless on Monday demanding that the ISPs pull the plug on 59 customers it had identified as illegally sharing copyrighted music.

Cable & Wireless issued a statement saying it would investigate. However while Tiscali said it takes copyright infringement seriously, it was not impressed with the BPI's proof.

It said the BPI had only supplied it with minimal evidence about one of the 17 customers. It also said the BPI had supplied no actual proof that copyright infringement had actually taken place.

In a letter to the BPI, Tiscali said: "You have sent us a spreadsheet setting out a list of 17 IP addresses you allege belong to Tiscali customers, whom you allege have infringed the copyright of your members, together with the dates and times and with which sound recording you allege that they have done so.

"You have also sent us extracts of screenshots of the shared drive of one of those customers. You state that such evidence is 'overwhelming'. However, you have provided no actual evidence in respect of 16 of the accounts.

"Further, you have provided no evidence of downloading taking place nor have you provided evidence that the shared drive was connected by the relevant IP address at the relevant time."

Tiscali also warned the BPI that it had no intention of handing over customer names and addresses without the requisite court order.

It pointed out if it did this, it risked breaching the terms and conditions of its customer agreements, and the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998.

However the ISP said based on the partial evidence the BPI had provided it had written to one customer. This person has been given seven days from the receipt of the letter in which to reply to Tiscali.

The ISP told the BPI that if it didn't get a satisfactory response from the customer and providing the BPI could supply more concrete proof of copyright infringement, it would then suspend the user's account "pending resolution of the BPI's investigation".