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Things are getting interesting with TalkTalk, the company which says its against the entertainment cartel’s three strikes and you’re off the net bidniz plan, at the same time promoting a corporate industy application which’ll encourage parents to spy on their kids.

To make things worse, it’ll also “help the content industry by blacklisting sites that have BitTorrent files on them”, says TalkTalk owner Carphone Warehouse.

There seems to be little, if anything, to choose between Peter Mandelson, the British ‘noble’ who’s the Hollywood and Big Music front in the UK for the Three Strikes scheme, and Charlie Dunstone (right), Carphone founder and CEO.

They’re both cynically acting in the best interests of the entertainment industry (and themselves) and against those of the people upon whom they depend.

And not only is TalkTalk using Three Strikes to boost itself as a model corporate citizen, it’s also paying a PR company to grease the wheels.

But maybe it’s wrong to mention TalkTalk and Carphone in the same breath.

Because next week Dunstone and Carphone finance director Roger Taylor “will start briefing investors in the UK and the US” about a “demerger,” says the Financial Times, going on >>>

They are likely to have to field questions about the risks facing the two new listed entities: TalkTalk and New Carphone Warehouse, which will hold a 50 per cent stake in Best Buy Europe. Best Buy owns the remainder of Best Buy Europe.

This spring Best Buy Europe will open its first four ‘big box’ stores in the UK that are supposed to transform consumer electronics retailing.

The stores, covering between 25,000 to 45,000 sq ft, will sell an array of goods including televisions, laptops and games consoles.

But the move coincides with the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, and some analysts are sceptical that Best Buy Europe can succeed with its plans for 100 stores across Europe by 2014.

Mr Taylor, who will be chief executive of New Carphone Warehouse, seeks to reassure investors by highlighting Best Buy’s intimate knowledge of running large consumer electronics stores in the US. ‘We’re partnered with the best in the world to make sure that we execute well,’ he says.

For TalkTalk, “the big risk is that its profitable telecoms business model is undermined by technology advances”, says the story.

That, and the fact it’s apparently actively in favour of online censorship.

But Dunstone is “keen to dispel the notion that the demerger is designed to facilitate a sale of Talk Talk, even though analysts and bankers say the split could prompt bids from rivals including BT, British Sky Broadcasting and Telefónica’s O2 subsidiary,” says the FT.

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