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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, again this is a critical group of amendments. They deal with one of the most difficult issues regarding the practical application of these proposals. We have touched on the issue already in an earlier group, but I hope this will give us the opportunity to explore the issue of infringements committed not by the subscriber but by a guest or a hacker. As it currently stands, a copyright owner, as has been pointed out already, can start the initial obligations process if they believe either that a subscriber has used an internet service to infringe their copyright or if a subscriber has allowed someone else to use their internet service to infringe copyright. In both circumstances, the process will be started against the subscriber to the internet service for either infringing copyright themselves or for allowing someone else to do so. It is still not clear what happens if someone uses an internet service without the knowledge or permission of the actual subscriber. It is possible to hijack an internet account, particularly a wi-fi account, as we have already heard, without the subscriber’s knowledge. Unfortunately the vast majority of people do not have particularly high security settings, and so, I am informed, this hijacking is relatively easy to do.