Governments and record labels are not without fault though, McGuinness believes. He accuses the institutions for creating a "thieves' charter" by suggesting that ISPs are not responsible by what passes through their networks. "If you were a magazine advertising stolen cars, handling the money for stolen cars and seeing to the delivery of stolen cars, the police would soon be at your door," he claims.

BBC News notes that McGuinness' view is at odds with groups like the Internet Service Providers Association, which contends that ISPs are "merely a conduit" for peer-to-peer file sharing. Of greater concern may be the US' Federal Communications Commission, which maintains a net neutrality policy, under which ISPs are not allowed to dictate how customers use their bandwidth.