BT and TalkTalk to appeal Digital Economy Act again

BT and TalkTalk to appeal Digital Economy Act again
Just pull the cables out and have done

BT and TalkTalk are set to head back to court to challenge the Digital Economy Act, after a failed bid earlier this year.

The two ISPs have been given permission to appeal the ruling made by the High Court in April, when their requests for a judicial review of the Act were rejected.

BT and TalkTalk aren't happy about the part of the Act that would see them responsible for policing users' web behaviour, particularly relating to pirated films and music.

Act-ion man

Under the Act, it would be their responsibility to send warning letters about illegal downloading, with the possibility that ISPs will be forced to terminate users' internet connections if they continue pirating content.

It's not just the ISPs that are unhappy about the Act and its sometimes severe measures, however; the Liberal Democrats recently voted to repeal parts of the legislation as well.

The party is concerned that consumers' rights are being overlooked in favour of keeping rights holders, like music labels and Hollywood studios, happy.

Act-ing up

The whole situation is becoming ever trickier; plans had been afoot to force ISPs to block websites suspected of facilitating file sharing with no real legal basis, These were then deemed 'unworkable' by UK business secretary Vince Cable.

However, this didn't stop a judge from ruling that BT must block NewzBin2, a site where users share links to file sharing locations, using software the ISP had developed in order to block sites serving abusive images.

Although this ruling was made on the Copyright, Designs and Patents act, not the Digital Economy Act, it set a somewhat worrying precedent.

That's not to mention the fact the public consultations about the measures seem to have been significantly less than legit.

Via BBC

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.