Forced review of the Digital Economy Act thanks to TalkTalk and BT

Following an allegation that the Digital Economy Act (DEA) received ‘insufficient scrutiny’ the UK’s two major broadband providers TalkTalk and BT have won the right to have a judicial review of the act.

The challenge of the Digital Economy Act was made by the two UK broadband companies back in July after the bill was controversially rushed through parliament in April 2010 following a short debate to which only six percent of MPs actually turned up.

Part of the bill was a highly controversial change to clause eight that allowed the court to either block or disconnect any website or IP address that was suspected of copyright infringement or persistent file sharing without the need for a trial. Many believed that basic rights and freedoms were compromised by the changes that had been implemented by the new bill. The file sharing sites themselves are also targeted by the new bill as well as any public sites that allow content to be uploaded like social media sites or YouTube.

With the cost of online copyright infringement to the digital economy in the UK valued at around £400 million every year there will be no scrapping of the decision to take action against anyone found to be illegally sharing files. Points that include human rights, data protection, privacy, and e-commerce will be amongst the areas that will be scrutinised and compared against existing EU legislation and February 2011 is that date that has been set for the commencement of High Court judicial proceedings.

The writing of the DEA handbook has been put in the hands of telecommunications regulator Ofcom, which has set a date of May for putting forward draft proposals that it is currently finalising. The responsibility for collecting personal data of anyone found breaching the law and sending them warning letters was placed with broadband providers under the tentative legislation.

Source – Thee Word