ISP Hits Back At U2 Manager's Billion Dollar Piracy Bonanza Claims

“Yet for the world’s internet service providers, bloated by years of broadband growth, ‘free music’ has become a multi-billion dollar bonanza,” says McGuinness.

Internet service provider Entanet took exception to his comments and last night responded. After earlier telling Bono to “Stick To Singing“, they are now suggesting that McGuinness should stick to what he knows best – the music.

“Considering Mr. McGuinness proudly informs us he has been debating on this issue for two years, he seems to totally misunderstand the reasons behind broadband customers' demand for better broadband speeds and equally doesn't understand the current facilities available on the Internet,” writes Entanet's head of marketing, Darren Farnden.

Farnden argues that most broadband customers want faster speeds in order to enjoy better performance on legal services such as online gaming, YouTube, iPlayer, iTunes and VoIP, and slams McGuinness for suggesting people just want to pirate more efficiently.

“It is simply naive to suggest that customers' desire for faster broadband and more bandwidth is driven solely by a desire to cheat music rights holders out of their royalties through illegal file sharing,” said Farnden.

The Internet police

But ISPs are not the Internet police, they are mere conduits of information, writes Farnden, while questioning why yet again the emphasis is being put on ISPs to solve someone else’s problem.