One of the key goals of the Labour government in power in the UK for the last 13 years has been to create “Digital Britain”. The aim has been to position the UK as a global technology leader and to promote both a regulatory framework and a digital economy attractive for technology investment.

On 8 April 2010, with a general election now only weeks away, as almost the last act of a departing Parliament, the government’s Digital Economy Act 2010 became law. The Act – depending on your perspective, either the culmination of 13 years’ work or something squeezed through as part of a Parliamentary wash-up – could have been either a landmark or a lame duck.

In this article, we describe how some key Digital Britain proposals have been implemented in the Digital Economy Act 2010.