BT & TalkTalk Win A Judicial Review Of The Digital Economy Act

UK broadband providers BT and TalkTalk have today won their battle to have the Digital Economy Act 2010 sent for judicial review.

Britain’s two largest internet service providers, which account for almost 10 million broadband subscribers, joined forces back in July in an effort to have the Act reviewed by the High Court, claiming that the Digital Economy Bill had been rushed through parliament.

The controversial Digital Economy Act includes measures to deal with illegal file-sharing and threatens to identify those suspected file-sharers to rights holders for the pursuit of legal action.

Many fear that this could lead to the blocking of legitimate websites, service speed restrictions, and limits on open Wi-Fi networks or even ISP account disconnection.

BT and TalkTalk argued that measures to cut off persistent file-sharers could breach European human rights laws.

“We are very pleased that the Court has recognised that our concerns about the copyright infringement provisions in the Digital Economy Act should be considered in a full hearing,” said Andrew Heaney, executive director of strategy and regulation at TalkTalk. “The Act was rushed through Parliament in the ‘wash-up’ with only 6% of MPs attending the brief debate and has very serious flaws.”

“The provisions to try to reduce illegal file-sharing are unfair, won’t work and will potentially result in millions of innocent customers who have broken no law suffering and having their privacy invaded.

“We look forward to the hearing to properly assess whether the Act is legal and justifiable and so ensure that all parties have certainty on the law before proceeding.”

The Digital Economy Act was rushed through parliament before the May General Election as part of the “wash-up” process. Many UK service providers believe that this process has resulted in “insufficient scrutiny” of the Act’s far reaching rules, with ISPs questioning whether the new laws could actually damage basic rights and freedoms.

Despite today’s announcement, representatives of the copyright industry claim it’s still far too early for the ISPs to celebrate any kind of victory. “All that the court has done today is to allow BT and Talk Talk’s legal challenge to go to a full hearing,” said a BPI spokesman.

“We continue to believe that their case is misconceived and will fail. The Act remains in full force and we will continue to work with Government, Ofcom and other stakeholders to implement it.”