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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, the Minister talked about darker purposes. No one quarrels with the concept of the real transgressors, but the whole discussion today has been about trying to protect those who are innocent or unknowing about what is happening and the use that is being made of their communal wi-fi system. The Minister was eloquent about the need to sweep everyone into the net so that the code could then begin to operate and so on, but he was not so eloquent about the defences that will be available to people. Where are they going to be available? Are they set out in the code? Is the householder’s or subscriber’s state of knowledge going to be set out in the code? Will there be a level of constructive knowledge that will be expected of a subscriber? Where will this be set out? Where will the defences be set out? It is all very well to have this broad sweep, but that is precisely why those who are advocating a narrower scope for this subsection are concerned: the state of knowledge does not seem to be covered in the Bill, and there is speculation about whether it is covered in the code.