Digital Economy Act supporters have their say

Judicial review

A number of organisations have joined forces to put across their case in favour of the Digital Economy Act.

BT and TalkTalk became outspoken critics of the Act last year and managed to win a judicial review back in November.

However, the High Court has now granted those for the legislation the chance to give their side of the story in its defence.

The group of nine organisations defending the Act includes the Premier League, BPI and the Producers' Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT).

Calling the judicial review granted to the ISPs a "misconceived case," John McVay, chief executive of PACT, told The Guardian: "The act can help repair the damage that illegal downloading causes to the UK creative industry and reduce the threat to the hundreds of thousands of jobs that the creative companies supports."

"The DEA is the result of many years of consultation and presents a reasonable and balanced solution."

The Digital Economy Act was controversial from its beginnings as a bill when the Business Secretary of the day, Peter Mandelson, suggested a three strike rule for illegal filesharers before they got their internet connections cut off.

The legislation was pushed through in the wash-up phase of the last Government, leading to more doubt as to whether it had gone through proper scrutiny in the House of Commons.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.