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“Gleefully snarky American Idol judge Simon Cowell notes that his first insult was directed at his own mother when he was only 4″, says People.

He apparently told his mother her white pillbox hat “made her look like a poodle” —- and has never looked back.

Now he’s horning in on the Three Strikes farce and unsurprisingly, he’s on the side of the corporate music industry and Featured Artists’ Coalition.

“Cowell, alongside several other powerful figures from the film and literary world, has put his name to a strongly worded letter, seen by The Telegraph, which MPs and the Lords will receive today, to get the anti-piracy measures in the bill pushed through, which could see repeat offenders’ internet connections cut off” says the newspaper, going on:

“The letter, which is also signed by Sir Terry Pratchett representing the interests of authors, says that the Digital Economy Bill, “will ensure that British creators, entertainment companies and the 1.8 million people who work in and around the cultural sector are respected and rewarded in the future as they have been in the past, and that they are fairly paid when they put their work online.”

The Three strikes law is a corporate music industry scheme and an element of the ACTA project.

It’s being introduced as locally proposed legislation by governments in countries such as the UK and France. Under it, governments would act as entertainment industry copyright agents, and ISPs would become industry enforcers against their own customers.

The UK’s Featured Artists’ Coalition at first voted unanimously against any measures that criminalize file-sharing, but later renaged, voting  “overwhelmingly to support a three-strike sanction on those who persistently download illegal files, sanctions to consist of a warning letter, a stronger warning letter and a final sanction of the restriction of the infringer’s bandwidth to a level which would render file-sharing of media files impractical  while leaving basic email and web access functional”.

The letter is “also signed by Paul Greengrass, president of Directors UK, Tim Bevan, the co-chairman of Working Title Films and Stephen Garrett, executive chairman of the TV and film production company Kudos” and is “solely focussed on the clauses containing the Government’s proposed anti-piracy measures”, says the Telegraph, addin git goes on to say:

“Digital entertainment services are really beginning to take off: fans have never had so much choice as to how to enjoy their music, books, TV and films online. But for these new business models to develop, it is critical that more is done to prevent the illegal services providing easy access to free content.”

Stay tuned.