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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Razzall, raises interesting questions about the use to which the copyright infringement lists will eventually be put. We originally understood that their purpose was to help rights holders to overcome the obstacles standing in the way of suing successfully copyright infringers through the civil courts. Proof that a single subscriber was knowingly infringing after being sent numerous warnings that such infringement was illegal would surely help, as would being able to identify the subscribers with large numbers of infringements against them. However, it is not obvious from the draft that this is a clear purpose of the legislation and the relationship between the lists, the letters and the reports are more confused when we turn to the fact sheet that we have been sent. As I understand it, the Government are considering three notification letters to be an adequate warning—one after the first infringement report against a subscriber, one after a further 10 infringements or a period of time, and the third and final warning letter after the 30th. I assume that the Government intend the requirement in subsection (1)(b) of the proposed new section to be a reference to three letters being sent. Will the Minister confirm that? Furthermore, will the list provided to a certain owner be composed of reports made by that same owner against the subscriber? Is that correct? How will this work if infringement reports are to be made by a trade body or collecting society? Will this body be able to apply for a list only on behalf of one owner, or will it be able to act as one body, able to demand lists of all reports made on behalf of all copyright owners for whom it is acting? If there is a specific threshold in the Bill, there must have to be some provision for flexibility. It appears that currently the process for identifying copyright breaches is expensive and therefore is not used to catch all instances of copyright infringement. This is, I am sure, likely to change, especially if these provisions create a market for the development of cheap and effective software that does a better job. There is therefore a strong possibility that a threshold which is based on current effectiveness would be out of date in a relatively short period of time.