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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I declare an interest as chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, but I want to be absolutely clear that it is not my role at the Press Complaints Commission, or my intention in this debate, to champion the interests of the newspaper industry. I speak in favour of the Bill as a longstanding passionate advocate of the UK’s creative industries, which I believe are the best in the world. This has been an area of long-term interest for me and I am heartened that there are many more speakers today than in 2005, when only the Front-Bench spokesmen contributed to a debate I initiated to highlight the importance of valuing intellectual property and the creative industries. I feel, too, that we have come a long way from the Communications Act 2003 in recognising what is actually happening due to media convergence. Noble Lords will recall that the Act recognised the reality of the digital age in only one area, and that was as a result of an amendment in your Lordships' House to support the expedition of universal provision of broadband services. In addition, one of the key shortcomings of that Act was that it focused very much on the plurality of choice of media, including the provision of choice of public service broadcasting, without proposing any solutions regarding how creative works would be properly rewarded, particularly in light of convergence—a development that was already becoming a reality at that time. My contribution today reflects my enduring interest in the UK’s vibrant creative economy. The creative sector is set to be an engine of growth out of the recession, especially as other sectors of the economy continue to struggle. It is important that the Government reaffirm and recognise the value of creative works, both to individuals and to the UK economy. I also have concerns regarding freedom of speech and possible regulatory creep beyond public service broadcasting into other editorial content, a concern that could directly impact the future of self-regulation for the press and online news. I will come to that a little later. When the Digital Britain report was published, there was much talk about the focus being too much upon the pipes and not enough upon the poetry, that the Government had addressed the relatively easy bits, the hardware, but what about the valuable software, the creative content, both in terms of its future viability and protection from piracy? Digital copyright theft, including illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing, is, as we have heard this afternoon, severely damaging the UK's creative industries, such as music, audio-visual, publishing, retail and sports broadcasting. Clearly, online copyright infringement seriously threatens the sector and it should be for an artist, singer, composer, author, photographer, filmmaker or publisher to decide whether they should give their work away for free. Measures are needed to tackle both illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing and non-peer-to-peer forms of infringement. The Bill has to be proportionate, effective and fair to media owners, ISPs, rights holders and consumers—a tough challenge. I hope the Bill will not only reduce the levels of online copyright infringement, but also ensure the development and growth of legal online services. Quality of content and high professional standards are vital across the media and to all the creative industries. The Bill focuses on a number of important areas which I hope will be carefully scrutinised through its passage. For example, this may sound like one small area and it is one that is often overlooked, but I focused on it back in 2005. It concerns the issue of orphan works. I said then: ""Without adequate protection the photographic image—tomorrow's cultural heritage—and those who create it will cease to have true value, and without adequate protection a profession dies".—[Official Report, 22/6/05; col. 1690.]" Take photographers who are concerned that, in a digital age, information about copyright and the creator supplied with the digital image is stripped away, often automatically, so that in a matter of moments the world is awash with so-called orphan images. Almost five years on, in a world where digital is now the universal norm, this is surely an even more pressing issue that must be carefully thought through by your Lordships. I hope that this will be an enabling Bill rather than a restrictive one. New laws should seek to encourage consumers into legal services and deter them from using illegal sites. In this regard, I have been struck by the degree of concern across the creative sector regarding the proposal in the Bill to allow for, in the words of Liberty, ""future Governments to sidestep traditional criminal and civil law standards and procedures in favour of administrative systems controlled by the Executive"." As other noble Lords have said, future Governments will have the power to change even the fundamentals of copyright without parliamentary debate through the use of statutory instruments. Of course we must also accept that with the speed of change in the creative environment, both in terms of technology and the marketplace, there must be flexibility, and the process of primary legislation is slow and often inflexible. There is a difficult balance to strike here, and I believe that it is important that we wrestle further with this issue in Committee. As chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, the body responsible for independent regulation of the press, I must express some concern at the extension of the scope of Ofcom's reviewing and reporting obligations beyond television. Considering public service media content on other platforms and applying stringent statutory impartiality rules has worrying implications for freedom of speech and expression. The exact shape, scope and range of the new regional news providers—the Minister referred to the new news consortia—the IFNCs, has yet to be finally determined by the Government and clarification is required. Otherwise, the risk is that impartiality rules will be expanded into areas of the media for which they were not intended and in which they will constrict freedom of expression. It is right that the Government acknowledge that we need funding and investment for a vibrant digital economy, and that they recognise the huge new opportunities for the creative industries that digital technology provides. New ideas, content and products must be fairly rewarded and protected, so it is also vital that the Government find a way to achieve a difficult balance between the rights of the individual and copyright protection. In terms of investment, however, are the Government satisfied that Ofcom will be able with confidence to promote the right and sufficiently flexible infrastructure, given the speed with which technology is changing? The need to create new business models fairly to reward creative works is crucial, and I am concerned that the Bill still has not addressed that and seeks to rely on old economy solutions to new economy problems. My worry is that the Bill is in danger of missing the opportunity seriously to consider funding for creative content. After all, its proper focus on illegal file-sharing masks the underlying problem of how content providers can survive when the public now expect free content online. In essence, perhaps the Bill has the wrong title. It should surely be called the creative economy Bill, to keep reminding us all that, no matter how much law is put in place to protect creative content, unless it is paid for in what is a fiercely competitive global marketplace, the quality of our creative works will decline such that there will not be a digital economy at all.