UN says says Digital Economy Act violates human rights

The United Nations (UN) has criticised several clauses in the Digital Economy Act (DEA) that deal with punishments for illegal file sharing. The organisation said the clauses violate people's human rights and breach international law.

In a report published last week, UN Special Rapporteur Frank La Ru said he was alarmed by proposals to cut off users' access to the internet for breaching copyright, such as those laid out under the UK DEA and French Hadopi laws.

The report said: "The Special Rapporteur considers cutting off users from internet access, regardless of the justification provided, including on the grounds of violating intellectual property rights law, to be disproportionate and thus a violation of article 19, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

Mr La Ru said existing intellectual copyright laws that allow this should be repealed or amended.

The UN report was also concerned about web blocking and filtering measures that would deny access to certain online content unless there were exceptional cases such as links to child abuse.

Mr La Ru said: "The arbitrary use of criminal law to sanction legitimate expression, such as blogging constitutes one of the gravest forms of restriction to the right, as it not only creates a ‘chilling effect' but also leads to other human rights violations."