The newly passed Digital Economy Act will cost at least £15m a year to Internet service providers. Those figures have been revealed from a Government consultation document. They just cover the estimated cost of sending warning notices to users who are alleged to have committed persistent copyright infringement by illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing, and not the cost of dealing with suspending or blocking access to the Internet – which are potential sanctions that may be required by the Government in at least a year's time. ISPs have complained that the costs being imposed on them are unfair as they are simply innocent intermediaries that facilitate people's access to the important tool that is the Internet. They say they are not responsible for what users do with that access in the same way as the Post Office is not responsible for the content of any messages sent through their service.
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