Internet Villains and Heroes list published

The organisation that represents the UK ISPs, the ISPA, has announced its annual list of Internet Heroes and Villains.

The idea behind this list is to acknowledge those people and organisations that have been at the centre of issues related to the internet, good or bad!

ISPA Awards 2009 Internet Hero and Villain finalists:

Internet Hero – sponsored by UKFast

Featured Artists Coalition – “For recognising publicly that the focus of music companies should be the development of new business models for distributing content online rather than attempting to pass responsibility to ISPs to take action against users”
Community Broadband Network – “For their relentless pursuit and support for next generation access at grass roots level”
European Parliament – “For rejecting by a significant majority an amendment to the Telecom Package designed to allow disconnection of users’ Internet connections for alleged copyright infringement without direct judicial oversight”
Lord Carter - “For his attempt to bring a holistic view to government policy across the communications spectrum”
Thomas Gensemer – “For showcasing the enormous power of the Internet in leading Barack Obama’s online presidential campaign”

Internet Villain

Baroness Vadera – “For excluding a number of ISPs and Rights Holders in agreeing a Memorandum of Understanding that was exclusive and ineffective in progressing relations between the two industries”
European Parliament - “For supporting an amendment to the Telecom Package on cookies which could yet bring the Internet to a standstill”
President Nicolas Sarkozy – “For his continued commitment to the HADOPI law, which advocates a system of graduated response, despite repeated arguments suggesting the law is disproportionate from a number of important groups including the European Parliament”
Stephen Conroy and the Australian Government - “For continuing to promote network-level blocking despite significant national and international opposition”

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held at the London Marriot Hotel, Grosvenor Square, on the 9th July.

There will also be two special awards voted for by the members of the ISPA council.