Judgment in the Digital Economy Act Judicial Review

[Cross-posted from pirateparty.org.uk.]

After only three weeks, Mr Justice Kenneth Parker has handed down his judgment in the Judicial Review of the Digital Economy Act. In summarising thousands of pages of evidence and submissions and the four-day hearing, the judge rejected nearly all of the grounds for the review, only allowing the challenge to part of the allocation of costs. The full text of the judgment can be found here and summaries of the hearings here.

The first point to note is the number of parties. While the case was between BT, TalkTalk and the government, there were thirteen interested parties involved, including six notorious pro-copyright lobby groups and four unions. This gives an indication of the intense lobbying pressure behind the Digital Economy Act, and why the previous government felt compelled to act the way they did.

The Digital Economy Act On Trial

This is a compilation of posts written for the Pirate Party summarising the main arguments made during the hearings for the Digital Economy Act Judicial Review – otherwise known as R (on the application of BT and TalkTalk) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. It covers the details of the first, third and fourth day of the oral submissions, I was unable to make the second day but summaries can be found elsewhere.