ISPs to be new Info-Stasi

Britain's surveillance society — love it or hate it — has, at the very least, had a plausible justification: the notion that tons of cameras and CCTV might infringe somewhat on privacy, but would keep our streets safer and stop terrorists. Westmonster may not agree with that justification, but at least it's plausible.

Culture Minister Andy Burnham's proposed intellectual property legislation will require ISPs from next year to rat on serial downloaders of copyrighted content, extending the surveillance culture from the streets to our living rooms. The justification for this infringement on privacy is that it's keeping large media companies safer and stopping digital pirates.

Westmonster doesn't agree with that justification at all.

But at least now — at long last — we can all breathe easy knowing the government is protecting us from punters illegally downloading last night's episode of Lost.