LEADING figures from across Britain’s biggest media companies have banded together to advise Lord Carter on how to tackle online piracy in the final weeks before his Digital Britain report is released on June 16.

The “copyright squad”, including Lucian Grainge of Universal Music and Michael Lynton of Sony Pictures, are urging Carter to include draft legislation that will compel internet service providers to collect data on repeat offenders that can be used to prosecute them if other action fails.

They want it to be handled by an enforcement body, owned by the industry but overseen by the media regulator Ofcom, to crack down on illegal peer-to-peer file sharing that costs the film, television and music industries an estimated total of £500m a year in lost revenues.

The body would be responsible for writing letters threatening consumers with disconnection, education campaigns and potential prosecutions, in effect outsourcing that job so that companies don’t have to police their own customers.

Richard Scudamore of the Premier League and Channel 4’s Andy Duncan are also part of the six-man squad. So, too, are Jeremy Darroch from Sky and Neil Berkett of Virgin Media. Between, them they have 5.8m broadband subscribers.

“It is a working group. Carter is very much using them as a sounding board,” said one source.

The six were corralled together to forge a broad consensus, aimed at achieving the government’s ambition to cut online piracy by 70%-80%. Some internet service providers have been reluctant to support legislation, saying it is not their job to snoop on consumers.

Media bosses are frustrated at the lack of progress, saying uncertainty over legislation has delayed signing rights deals. They have rejected setting up a digital-rights agency, fearing it would interfere with commercial arrangements.

A conference on Tuesday led by the UK Film Council and the Federation of Entertainment Unions will also press the case for new laws.

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