TalkTalk’s CEO, Charles Dunstone, on the recent suggestions that U.K. ISPs should ban illegal file sharers:

“Our position is very clear, we are the conduit that gives users access to the Internet, we do not control the Internet nor do we control what our users do on the Internet. I cannot foresee any circumstances in which we would voluntarily disconnect a customer's account on the basis of a third party alleging a wrong doing. We believe that a fundamental part of our role as an ISP is to protect the rights of our users to use the Internet as they choose. We will fight any challenge to the sanctity of this relationship with every legal option available to us.”

Translation: We make a lot of money from letting our customers steal your copyrighted material. We firmly believe that it is the right of our customers to use the Internet to steal your stuff if they so wish. If you try to force us to stop them, we will sue.

“The music industry has consistently failed to adapt to changes in technology and now seeks to foist their problems on someone else. Rather than threatening us, the BPI's time would be better spent facing up to the reality of our times and adapting its business model accordingly.”

Seems a bit of a cheek to me talking about business models. TalkTalk is one of the low cost broadband providers whose business model really depends on the fact that there are a large number of cheapskate consumers who are happy to steal music, software, games and more recently films over the Internet. i.e. their business model is built on the ability of their customers to break the law.

TalkTalk, like the other consumer ISPs, knows damn well what its customers are getting up to, and will quite probably do or say anything to deflect the authorities from drawing the conclusion that ISPs are being unjustly enriched thanks to mass-scale copyright infringement.