The Digital Economy Act 2010: Is The DEA DOA?

The Digital Economy Act 2010 was hurried into existence in the dying days of the last Labour government, and contains powers designed to resist unauthorised file sharing that are due to be implemented by an Initial Obligations Code authored by Ofcom. Even before the Code has been published, there are several pre-existing key areas of the Act that contain significant evidential problems and potential incompatibilities with existing law. This paper critically reviews the legislation and identifies a number of significant flaws in consideration of its ongoing judicial review and the regulatory review by Ofcom. The status of the DEA in light of the recent decision in MediaCAT v. Adams is also discussed in the context of the threat it contains to the fundamental evidential foundation upon which the operation of the Act is based.