Comment I wonder if this opens the ISP's up to liability.. (Score 2, Informative) 59
Not exactly sure about the UK, but I know here in Canada that FOIP (Freedom of Information and Privacy Act) has provisions that mean that ISPs aren't allowed to give out that info without a court order, and would be subject to Federal criminal prosecution if they did hand out the info to private 3rd parties.
I had thought the laws were similar in the UK. It would be interesting if one of these users sued their ISP for unlawful disclosure of personal information. The privacy act in the UK can be nasty to those who break it. It all depends whether that information is protected or not.
FOIP is the big reason why you don't see these types of lawsuits in Canada, that and a long history of the Canadian courts telling rights holders "tough noogies" when they sue people who make copies for personal use - we pay a blank media tax that gets divvied up amongst rights holders as a hedge against piracy.