Advanced Television

Court grants BT customer data handover delay

October 6, 2010

A Judge has postponed a court order against BT which would have forced it to hand over customer details to lawyers acting for record companies. An adjournment was won on a court order brought by solicitors Gallant Macmillan, acting on behalf of the Ministry of Sound. BT acted after names handed to another law firm ended up on the Internet after a cyber attack – neither BT nor the lawyers had bothered to encrypt the data.

BT said it would challenge such court orders until the rights holder and law firm can prove that accusations of illegal file sharing have “some basis”. BT also raised concerns about the customer-tracking methods employed on behalf of firms such as Gallant Macmillan and ACS:Law last week as the personal details of thousands of broadband users – including at least 316 customers of the BT-owned internet service provider Plusnet – suspected of sharing copyrighted content were leaked online in the aftermatch of an attack on the website of ACS:Law.

BT said “The incident involving the ACS:Law data leak has further damaged people’s confidence in the current process. We’re pleased that the court has agreed to an adjournment so that our concerns can be examined by the court, this will then act as a precedent/test case for the future.”

“We want to ensure broadband subscribers are adequately protected so that rights holders can pursue their claims for copyright infringement without causing unnecessary worry to innocent people. We have not simply consented to these orders in the past, we have asked for stricter terms as public concern has risen. The data leak with ACS:Law prompted us to take further action today.”

Categories: Articles, Broadband, Regulation