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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

I will try to be helpful to the Minister rather than difficult. One does not want unintended consequences. I have a feeling that Skype and other such voice over IP traffic is peer to peer. I am not sure how easy it is to distinguish between other peer-to-peer traffic in which music may be exchanged and Skype. I know that certain protocols, such as the SET protocol, may make it very easy to distinguish between the two, but we must be careful that we do not end up blocking people’s telephony when we are trying to stop them exchanging music. Voice over IP is becoming a more general way of telephoning and communicating, particularly among the young who cannot afford landlines.