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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

There can be no evidence because we are going into unknown territory, but the British Phonographic Industry has told me that the figure is 6.5 million, and the Creative Coalition Campaign gave me the figure of 7 million that I just gave the Committee. Those are presumably well researched figures. The Bill quite clearly states that the objective is get the figure down and that if there is no response from the general public—from these 6.5 million or 7 million people—further action will be taken. There is nothing on which anyone, including the Minister, can base the figures, for the simple reason that it has not been done yet. I do not believe that the public will respond because there are so many holes in this. I am not reassured by the lack of technical precision in the Bill team’s briefing. You do not upload when you file-share peer to peer. The whole point about peer-to-peer file-sharing is that there is no central server on which to upload files. They are downloaded directly from the other person; no uploading is involved. If the Minister’s Bill team does not understand even that amount of technology, I have very little faith that it can answer any of the questions asked by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, either. Neither he nor I believe half the things that the Minister says so airily, including that it is easy to say who is doing what on your personal network at home. If you can show me technically how I can do that and if a program is recommended to me that I can use, I will gladly and happily buy it and publicise it when I next talk to PC Pro and others.