The three strikes and you're out plan to disconnect filesharers from the net, proposed by UK business secretary Lord Mandelson, has encountered criticism from ISPs and digital rights groups alike, but fails to tackle the central issues.

The ISPs justly complain that they are being made to shoulder the weight and the cost of enforcing a law that is beyond the remit of their service.

If copyright law is unclear about the rights of individuals to copy or give away articles that are in their rightful possession, how can an ISP be asked to arbitrate on the rights and wrongs of content over which it has no control?

An ISP provides a telephonic connection to the internet and access down the wires to billions of web pages, but can not and should not control the content of those pages, or access to them.

The central issue is copyright and the ownership of ideas. Paradoxes of ownership and authorship of innovative and creative work lie at the heart of the debate about "intellectual property rights" - a debate which is a vital part of the culture that has evolved around the internet, and the gadgets with which we work, rest and play.