A music industry expert has criticised the Chief Executive Officer of broadband provider TalkTalk for "scare-mongering" on the issue of illegal filesharing.

Feargal Sharkey, the head of UK Music, has claimed that Charles Dunstone's suggestion that tackling filesharing would be costly and lead innocent web users to be disconnected could be wide of the mark.

Writing for the Daily Mail, he explained that account suspensions would only occur in extreme cases, while creative industries, broadband providers and technology companies have to work together to tackle the issue.

He added: "The more progressive internet providers would appear to be supportive.

"Ironically, the volume of unlicensed file sharing is hitting their businesses too - clogging networks and slowing broadband speeds."

Mr Sharkey's opinion piece in the newspaper was written in response to Mr Dunstone's previous article in the same publication, in which he claimed the digital economy bill would create an "Orwellian nightmare".