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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I agree with my noble friend that the scope of any appeal process relating to the imposition of technical measures should be at least as wide as for the measures in Clauses 4 to 8. A similar argument holds for the division of costs. If the Minister disagrees, I should be interested in his reasoning: infringement reports and technical measures are imposed on a subscriber on the basis of allegations made by a copyright holder and are implemented by an internet service provider. If anything, the appeal process should be tilted more in favour of the subscriber because of the more serious consequences of having technical measures imposed. As to the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Razzall, I hope very much that the Minister will not fall back on his desire for endless flexibility. But if he does not accept this amendment, I hope that he will give us an example of when it would not be absolutely necessary to include these measures in a code. My amendment probes a little further the question of whether a technical measure stands while an appeal is ongoing. It is our view that a technical measure should not be imposed until all avenues for appeal and objection have been exhausted. After all, a technical measure will have a significant impact on a subscriber and, if the measure is proved not to have been justified, it will be time-consuming, and possibly expensive, to compensate for the unjustified impact. Of course, there is the view that delaying the technical measure while a protracted appeal case is concluded merely allows for more copyright infringement, but if ever there was an incentive to establish a low-cost, effective and, above all, rapid appeal system, this is it. By postponing technical measures until the appeal system is over, an efficient system is to everyone's benefit.