High Court backs online anti-piracy law

BT and Talk Talk had claimed that the Government’s Digital Economy Act 2010 would damage their customers privacy and ‘free expression rights of consumers’ and was also incompatible with European law. They were backed by the Big Brother Watch campaign, which said the Act “represents a worrying incursion on internet users’ personal privacy and freedom of access to information”.

The Government says the legislation, which is aimed at tackling illegal file sharing and protecting intellectual property rights online, will protect the UK’s “creative economy” from the threat of online copyright infringement. The industry itself claims that copyright theft and illegal file sharing costs it around £400 million a year.

Mr Justice Parker, sitting at London’s High Court, upheld the governments submissions which maintained that the legislation was consistent with EU legislation and contained sufficient safeguards to protect the rights of consumers and ISPs.

BT “disappointed”

BT said it was disappointed and that it would be reviewing the judgement. A spokesman added that: “Protecting our customers is our number one priority and we will consider our options once we have fully understood the implications for our customers and businesses.

A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesman said: “We are pleased that the court has recognised these measures as both lawful and proportionate. The Government remains committed to tackling online piracy and so will set out the next steps for implementation of the Digital Economy Act shortly.”

Daniel Hamilton, director of Big Brother Watch said he was worried: “This ruling will force internet service providers, for fear of being prosecuted, to impose strict controls on the type of web services their users may or may not access. While illegal copyright infringement is a serious problem which must be tackled, expanding government control over the internet is a hugely regressive step.”