Dunstone explains Digital Act challenge

Charles Dunstone, chief executive of TalkTalk-owner The Carphone Warehouse, has said that the firm's joint legal challenge with BT against the Digital Economy Act is intended to avoid wasting money on an "unworkable" anti-piracy solution.

Today, the two ISPs lodged papers at the High Court asking for a judicial review of the act, which included new powers to disconnect persistent illegal filesharers.

Writing on the TalkTalk blog, Dunstone expressed his belief that the act was rushed through in the 'wash-up' period before parliament was dissolved without its impact being "properly scrutinised".

He also said that the measures to prevent illegal filesharing have the potential to "harm the basic rights and freedoms of citizens".

"In particular, we are concerned that obligations imposed by the act may not be compatible with important European rules that are designed to ensure that national laws protect users' privacy, restrict the role of ISPs in policing the internet and maintain a single market", said Dunstone.

"As a result, we're seeking clarity from the court before we and other industry players are asked to implement the act. We want to avoid a situation where we invest tens of millions of pounds in new systems and processes only to find that the act is unenforceable and the money wasted."

TalkTalk has led a sustained campaign against the government's approach to tackling illegal filesharing on grounds that it is "unfair" and, at worst, "unworkable".

The ISP believes that the measures will result in innocent web users being targeted as criminals and allow those who hack other people's connections to continue illicitly accessing copyrighted material without fear of rebuke.

As the act only applies to ISPs with more than 400,000 customers, TalkTalk is also concerned that it could result in offenders migrating to smaller ISPs to avoid detection.

Dunstone said that TalkTalk and BT are not alone in their opposition to the measures as many sections of the public also share their concerns.

On the Your Freedom site recently launched by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg to gauge the public's policy priorities, the Digital Economy Act was placed highly on a wishlist of laws to be repealed by the new coalition.

Ofcom has already issued its provisional guidelines on the anti-piracy measures, but Dunstone wants the judicial review to halt the act "as quickly as possible before lots of money is spent on [its] implementation".

However, the coalition told the BBC that there are no plans to backtrack on the anti-piracy measures laid out in the act.

"The Digital Economy Act sets out to protect our creative economy from the continued threat of online copyright infringement, which industry estimates costs the creative industries, including creators, £400m per year," it said.

"We believe measures are consistent with EU legislation and that there are enough safeguards in place to protect the rights of consumers and ISPs and will continue to work on implementing them."