Response to Digital Economy Act Judicial Review appeal decision

Responding to the decision this morning in the appeal of the Judicial Review of the Digital Economy Act, Peter Bradwell of Open Rights Group said:

“There is one thing the court cannot tell us: that this is a good law. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport had no evidence when they wrote this Act, except for the numbers they were given by a couple of industry trade bodies. This is a policy made on hearsay and assumptions, not proper facts or analysis.

So significant problems remain. Publicly available wifi will be put at risk. Weak evidence could be used to penalise people accused of copyright infringement. And people will have to pay £20 for the privilege of defending themselves against these accusations.

The Government needs to correct these errors with a proper, evidence-based review of the law.”

Contact: Peter Bradwell, peter@openrightsgroup.com / 07811 268398

The full text of the decision can be found here.