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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 196. In another part of the Bill we discussed the whole area of wi-fi and library services. The Minister was very clear, eventually, in saying which side of the line libraries and wi-fi providers fell. I do not wish to prolong the agony of that debate unduly because we have dealt with the principles involved to a large extent, but there is considerable dismay particularly among cultural and educational institutions that they will fall on that side of the line. Many of them feel that they will have to rethink on whether they can continue to provide these kinds of services to students and so on. The Minister has been saying pretty consistently that they will have to take responsibility for all illegal downloading of those who use their service. That is a heavy responsibility for those institutions. The two amendments have a similar purpose, as did the previous amendments relating to the initial obligations code. I do not know whether the Minister has had time to reflect on these matters, but it seems extraordinary that we will be placing such a burden on these institutions. I heard what the Minister said about the kinds of things they could do in terms of installing software and so on, but this is not the family home. We are talking about university colleges and the young people who use the services are free agents. I hope that the Minister will think again about this. Certainly the correspondence that I have received since these debates began has been considerable. The cultural and educational sectors are very concerned about these matters. I hope that the Minister will think again about this. Certainly the correspondence I have received since we last had these debates has been considerable, and I can say that the cultural and educational sectors are very concerned about these matters. Perhaps the Minister will take the opportunity, on this second time around, to be rather more reassuring than he was the first time. I beg to move.