The CEOs of BT (NYSE: BT) and TalkTalk (the UK’s two biggest ISPs) as well as Orange UK, the Open Rights Group, Which? and Consumer Focus are signatories to a letter in The Times on Thursday which calls for re-think on the plans. It reads: “We are concerned that the Government’s latest proposals on the ‘how’ to reduce illegal filesharing are misconceived and threaten broadband consumers’ rights and the development of new attractive services.”

SEE ALSO: Big Media Get Their Way: Govt. Now Wants Quicker Piracy Action, Disconnection

A consultation document from Lord Mandelson’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has gone farther than the 10-month Digital Britain policy review, recommending suspending users’ connections “as a last resort”, as well as speeding up the legislative process to bring in laws before 2012. ISPs don’t take kindly to being forced to cut off customers in any circumstances, nor to being told to fund the system that will disconnect them.

—Innocent until proven guilty: The executives warn that, with “harsh and punative” measures like disconnection, their customers “must be presumed to be innocent unless proven guilty” and be given the right to defend themselves. It was exactly this legal point that led to a watering down of Nicolas Sarkozy’s anti-P2P legislation: a local judge must now rule in disconnection cases after France’s Constitutional Court ruled the plans illegal. If the system isn’t seen to be fair, the ISPs warn of a consumer revolt.

—Freedom of expression: The ISPs don’t hold back with the strong language, arguing that “usually, constraints to freedom of expression are imposed only as the result of custodial sentences, or incitement to racial hatred, or libel.” And they’re not too keen on paying for these measure either: “The proposal that ISPs— should pay most of the cost of these measures to support the creative industries is grossly unfair since the vast majority of consumers do not fileshare illegally.

—We won’t pay: “The proposal that ISPs — and by implication broadband customers — should pay most of the cost of these measures to support the creative industries is grossly unfair since the vast majority of consumers do not fileshare illegally,” the letter says. Mandelson’s revised P2P-tackling proposals suggested that rights holders and ISPs split the cost of anti-filesharing measures 50:50 (Ofcom will pay for sending out warning notices). But the ISPs say think again: they warn that charging them will only halt the progress of legal P2P services being developed by ISPs and content owners.