Businesses that provide staff and visitors with internet access may face greater risk of legal action for copyright infringement following the passing into law of the Digital Economy Act, it has emerged.
Secondary legislation to be introduced after the upcoming General Election may make universities, libraries and internet café owners liable if their facilities are used by online pirates. Businesses that provide staff and visitors with internet access may face the same sanction.
An Ofcom spokesman said businesses's risk would depend on the contracts they have with upstream suppliers.
"If they are subscribers and share a public IP address across all 'internal' users then they are themselves likely to be liable," she said. "But it may be different if say they are a large company acting as a 'communications provider' supplying 'subscribers' with the internet."