You've gotta love Mark Thomas, right? Well, not necessarily, it seems. Cross-industry trade body UK Music has filed a formal complaint with the BBC over a ten minute segment aired on the Corporation's 'Culture Show' in which the always opinionated comedian analysed the always fun Digital Economy Bill, the bit of legislation currently working its way through parliament which includes the much previously reported British take on the three-strikes system for combating online piracy.

The Feargal Sharkey-headed music business body reckons Thomas' review of the copyright provisions in the DEB were overly biased towards those who oppose the proposed new laws, and that the feature contained some misleading information, which UK Music had alerted the programme's makers of before the piece aired.

Pointing out that only one minute and forty seconds of the ten minute feature included those who disagreed with Thomas' anti-DEB viewpoint, UK Music say that most of the information which it considers "misleading" centred on the process that copyright owners will go through to suspend a file-sharer's net connection if the proposals in the bill become law. This is certainly the area where there does seem to be some confusion among both those who support and those who oppose the legislation.

UK Music say Thomas and his anti-DEB interviewees claimed that the bill will enable movie studios and record companies to get file-sharers' net access cut off "with a bare minimum of evidence being presented" and that copyright owners would have the power to submit "three false accusations and then taking bolt cutters to someone's internet".

But UK Music argues that this is simply not so. They say only "serious repeat infringers" will be targeted, that some fifty infringement notices would need to be filed against someone before they were deemed to fall into that category, and that when a suspension order was requested by a copyright owner the matter would then go to an independent ombudsman - most likely a new department within OfCom - at which stage the accused would be able to appeal.

The trade body also take issue with Thomas' description of Clause 17, the undeniably controversial DEB provision which gives the secretary of state with responsibility for IP issues the right to introduce new copyright rules in the future without consulting parliament. Thomas, and many others before him, reckon this is entirely undemocratic, and that it will enable the copyright lobby to persuade future ministers to sneak in even more draconian rules on file-sharing.

But UK Music says Clause 17 has been misrepresented also, adding that a rework of that clause in the House Of Lords means all affected groups and parliament would have to be consulted before new copyright rules could become law, the clause simply means new full legislation would not be required every time new technology results in new copyright challenges.

UK Music man Sharkey concluded: "We very much welcome an open debate on the Digital Economy Bill. But we would have expected a distinguished broadcaster like the BBC to present a balanced feature, based on facts and with all sides of the discussion being represented. On this occasion, however, we believe the BBC fell short on all accounts. Due to the seriousness of these breaches, we believe that the only appropriate and effective remedy would be an on-air retraction and apology".

The BBC says it is considering UK Music's complaint. Meanwhile, you can watch Thomas' DEB piece here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4S4siQAfY4. This unofficial video upload on YouTube possibly infringes the BBC's copyright, but don't worry, once the DEB is passed whoever uploaded it will be tracked down and have their hands cut off. Or at least that's what I heard. I think it was Mark Thomas who told me that.