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ISPs’ judicial review efforts against three-strikes fail
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 22 June 2011
BT and TalkTalk’s application to appeal that judicial review ruling over the copyright section of the Digital Economy Act has been turned down.
As much previously reported, the two net firms wanted judges to send the DEA’s copyright provisions back to parliament for reconsideration based on claims that the three-strikes style system for combating illegal file-sharing that those provisions introduce breaches various bits of European law, and also because of the argument that, because the Act was rushed through parliament by the outgoing Labour government, it did not get sufficient parliamentary scrutiny.
But at the initial judicial review in April judges rejected pretty much all of the net firms’ arguments. BT and TalkTalk then announced late last month that they had applied to the High Court to appeal that ruling, but on Monday Judge Richard Buxton refused that application, effectively ending this line of fire for those in the ISP sector who still oppose the concept of the three-strikes system, though TalkTalk in particular have previously vowed to pursue every possible route of legal challenge before sending out the warning letters which are the first stage of the three-strikes process.
Work to launch the letter sending stage of three-strikes is already underway, of course, albeit someway behind the originally desired schedule. It now seems likely the first warning letters will go out in early 2012. Meanwhile a spokesman for BT and TalkTalk yesterday said the two companies were considering their positions.
