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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, it might be useful to write on these complicated issues. We should be wary of saying that these things cannot be achieved. I do not wish to engage in an overly technical debate on this with the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, but I am reliably informed that, in terms of the average home user protecting their wireless network, there are reasonable steps that people can take. When we talk about communal networks, I am also assured that there are steps that can be taken. This is a complex issue and an important one, given the organisations that were identified by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller; and I will try to address the concerns of the noble Baroness, Lady Howe. There are examples of plenty of free information material being available, but that is not the point. It is the copyrighted material that people seek to obtain for free, even though in many cases it is available at reasonable prices. That is one of the problems that we are dealing with. We will write specifically on this question of communal usage and make a copy available in the Library. I do not want to repeat what I said previously in response to the suggestion of my noble friend Lord Whitty. I just want to take the main point that we have identified peer-to-peer as the main problem; but, as we know, technology moves on. I had a fear that the nemesis that appeared in relation to the contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Howard, would appear—if this is the case, why do we need Clause 17? As my noble friend Lord Davies said, we will scale that Everest when we come to it. I do not know whether that is the right metaphor to use in this case, but I think there are good reasons for it.