The Digital Economy Act has been put together to update UK law alongside constantly updating technology. The act itself covers many things such as the running of Channel 4, copyright of films, music and other media and the age certification of video games.
It aims to safeguard web content by protecting copyrighted content by banning websites that host copyrighted material such as music, films and TV programs which are viewed and shared over the Internet by millions of users. In affect this costs the media Industry lots of money as less people are paying for produced media as they can get it for free online, technically robbing the creators of it.
It’s become quite controversial as the legislation states how it would govern breaches of copyright by giving information of users to companies affected so they could sue for damages, and cutting off users who are caught breaching copyright laws.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/10077554
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Economy_Act_2010
Digital Communication Blog 