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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, my noble friend’s amendment identifies two key areas where evidence of an infringement at an appeal might need to be of a much higher quality than that which is presented to an internet service provider in an infringement report. Whether the simple process that my noble friend envisages is possible, I do not know. Whether an account has been hacked into despite reasonable measures having been taken, or whether a subscriber has apparently taken reasonable measures to prevent unlawful file-sharing but is in fact continuing, under the guise of being hacked, is a question that can be resolved only with a fair amount of technical expertise. Similarly, the evidence that makes up the infringement report appears to be largely stand-alone. I am sure that the industry can show to its own complete satisfaction that an IP address was, at a certain time, unlawfully sharing a certain piece of copyright material, but will the evidence that satisfies a copyright owner be adequate to convince others who may take a less subjective view? Again, a certain level of technical expertise may be needed to show that the evidence that the rights holders claim is watertight is indeed watertight.