BT and Talktalk take on the DEA Act

UK TELECOM FIRMS British Telecom (BT) and Talktalk are challenging the UK Digital Economy Act, that warty, bloated, onerous legislation that has caused controversy ever since it was first hatched by a bunch of copyright holder firms and a Machiavellian ex-minister.

BT and Talktalk are complaining about the latest part of the Act to come up for regulatory approval, that part that dictates under what circumstances notification letters can be sent out to potentially illegally downloading householders.

These letters are part of a mass-notification system that will see rights holders write to ISPs and ask them to write to addresses and warn the inhabitants that an IP address associated with the premises is downloading music, movies and the like.

The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport told the INQUIRER that these letters would contain advice on securing a network connections, and not the sort of bully boy threats, like the much-touted three strikes and "you're off the Internet", that the media have been suggesting.

BT confirmed that it would be at the Judicial appeal but would not go into specific detail on what it hoped to achieve with its complaint.

Instead it released a statement that said that it and Talktalk were concerned that the Digital Economy Act tramples all over accepted European privacy laws, which presumably the DCMS has filed under 'ignore'.

"The companies share a concern that obligations imposed by these provisions may not be compatible with four aspects of European law that are designed to ensure that national rules are proportionate, protect users' privacy, restrict the role of ISPs in policing the Internet and maintain a single market," it said.

"BT and Talktalk took this action to obtain clarity on these points. It is in everyone's interest to avoid the risk of investing time and resources on implementation only for that to be wasted because the provisions are subsequently found to be unenforceable under European law."

The DEA became law in January but it has not come into force yet. It has been repeatedly challenged, attacked and complained about, though, so given time the DEA Act might become the Dead On Arrival (DOA) Act that so many people have hoped it would become. µ