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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, my amendments in this group are also just excuses to seek clarity from the Government. The noble Lord, Lord Davies, gave us a few moments ago a pretty good idea of how evidence is obtained in relation to uploading; in other words, where someone has made a file available on a peer-to-peer network. We have not yet heard how it is intended that evidence should be obtained of downloading; that is, where someone who has not made any of their own material available on a peer-to-peer network goes out and finds material that they want on such a network. That is what is alleged to happen in the cases about which the noble Lord, Lord Davies, and I were fulminating earlier. We are talking about people who would not know enough about a computer to join a peer-to-peer network but are alleged to have downloaded copyright material. Those allegations are based on very secretive processes carried out under no known protocol and of uncertain legality. I hope that we are not looking at allowing that kind of evidence to appear as part of this process. I would be grateful for a greater understanding of whether the Government intend to attack people who just download and, if so, how it is intended that robust and understandable evidence is to be obtained.