Digital Economy Act delayed by 10 months

The British law that should counter file sharing, the Digital Economy Act, only comes into effect in half a year’s time. That is ten months later than planned. Implementation is delayed because the British high court is reviewing the law.

The introduction of the measures that describe how rights holders can track people that share their works without permission, was postponed as two large ISPs, BT and TalkTalk took the law to court in November. The two ISPs asked that the law be reviewed on its compatibility with European legislation. The high court started checking this in February, but has not indicated a when it will be ready.

The planning for sending warning letters to alleged file sharers is still to be met, the British government stated. The goal is to send thousands of notifications in the first half of next year. . The letters are meant to persuade file sharers to change their behaviour.

To further emphasise that the government does not feel like waiting much longer with applying the new law, it has now set a limit to the delay. The measures should come into force in October. A spokesperson of the department of Culture, Media and Sports said:
"This is a deadline – we would hope the code can be made before then and are still aiming to have the first notification letters go out in the first half of next year,"

ISPs are made responsible for sending the letters. When alleged file sharers have not changed their behaviour after repeated notifications, their internet connections may be throttled or even cut off. Telecoms authority Ofcom supervises the correct application of the law.