BT deaf to pop piracy; yourmoney: MUSIC BOSS FURY OVER NET 'APATHY'.

Byline: CLINTON MANNING

EXCLUSIVE BT is refusing to punish internet pirates who cost the music industry at least pounds 200million a year despite being led to the culprits.

Music chiefs claim to have given the internet giant details of 100,000 customers guilty of illegal file sharing since February - but they say BT has not made any effort to stamp out the problem.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of BPI, said: "It's shameful."

Earlier this week, BT told Your Money Government plans to force it to tackle piracy on the web could push up broadband bills by pounds 24 a year. The firm's consumer chief John Petter said the proposals were doomed to fail and would cost the industry pounds 1million a day.

But Taylor insisted BT was exaggerating the costs as ministers weigh up how to tackle the problem.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson's possible remedies - which include cutting off persistent offenders - have stirred up a hornets' nest.

Artists such as Lily Allen have condemned illegal file-sharing as "strangling new talent".

BT said music and movie companies should prosecute offenders.

But the BPI said internet service providers such as BT are simply passing the buck.

"It's shameful for a company like BT to know that a high percentage of the traffic it carries is illegal material but do nothing," said Taylor. "If you operate a commercial service and know it is being used to break the law, taking steps to ensure it is used legally is a cost of doing business."

He said UK broadband revenues have soared in the past six years while music sales have fallen every year due to piracy. "This is just about BT protecting profits."

A BT spokesman said: "Many peer to peer applications are perfectly legal, such as World of Warcraft and BBC iPlayer. To investigate the exact nature of each case would involve an intrusive level of inspection of people's traffic and customers would rightly complain."

CAPTION(S):

TALENT Lily Allen hates file sharing