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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

This is, in effect, a Motion of Regret. These subjects were present in Digital Britain, but there is nothing in the Bill about them. When looking at a system of getting money for copyright holders which is under attack and which I believe will not prove to be totally defensible, we should, at the same time as trying to preserve that system, look at alternative means of getting money for copyright holders. There are well established methods on the continent and elsewhere of doing this. One is retransmission fees, whereby, for example, if the BBC’s free-to-air broadcasts were retransmitted by Virgin or Sky a fee would be payable. Another method is fees for reuse or late use. On the continent these are in general collected by a levy on machinery, but we in this country have a licence fee, and we could look at collecting an annual levy in that way. I do not have any particular conclusions to draw on these methods, but it is a pity that that element of Digital Britain is being neglected and that we are not, at the same time as experimenting with telling the tide not to rise—which Clause 4 and onwards are concerned with—building a boat, which Digital Britain recommended. I beg to move.