Graphic novelist and screenwriter Neil Gaiman has entered the anti-piracy debate, with news he has sent a letter to the author of the Digital Britain report, Lord Carter.

The letter has been printed in full by the Open Rights Group (of which Gaiman is a member) and it calls for Carter to defend what he outlined in his report earlier this year.

A new way

"I am sure you know Peter Mandelson's revised plan to disconnect users won't put a single extra penny in the pockets of the recording artists and their agents," explains Gaiman's letter.

"A new way of licensing music online must be found, so artists get paid when their music is played, a principle we at the Open Rights Group support. The old way no longer works."

While the letter was written at the back of November, its content is still very much relevant, with Gaiman criticising Mandelson's plans to allow him to amend the legislation surrounding copyright as "laying the foundations for a digital dictatorship".

The tightening of online piracy was clear to see this month, with Mininova - one of the web's most popular bit-torrent tracking sites - ditching its illegal torrents and going legit.