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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, the amendment would set a clear time limit of a month for how long an internet service provider has from receiving a properly presented copyright infringement report from a copyright owner to when a notification is sent to the subscriber alleged to have been infringing online if the copyright infringement report is one of those for which the code requires a notification to be generated. The glass is still half full, but I have a good deal of sympathy with the thought behind this amendment. This is an area where speed is important and it is not reasonable to expect people to remember the circumstances around what they were doing online weeks or months in the past. We explored that area in our debate on the previous amendment. However, this is not something which we need to specify in the Bill and it might prove to be counterproductive to do so. Once a period is specified in legislation, inevitably that would be the said period. It would become the default period despite the intention and the wording making it clear that it should represent the outer limit. This is not a risk that we should take. I anticipate that the norm between the receipt of a copyright infringement report and a notification being sent, if appropriate, will be a matter of days. If the process is fully automated—it is our view that that will happen—we may be in the realm of minutes. I would much prefer to leave the details and the essential safety nets to the code, and not take the risk of inadvertently introducing a potential drag into the system. Obviously, I note the arguments that were made. We still believe that it is proper to the code, but we will look at whether there might be some helpful parameters. On the basis of that explanation, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.