---

Digital Economy Bill [HL]

I shall speak also to the other amendments in this group. I apologise to the Committee for not being here for my previous amendments, although that was no doubt some relief to my noble friend the Minister. I declare my chairmanship of Consumer Focus. My concern here is for the consumers of digital services and the process that this whole part of the Bill will put them through. My noble friend will know that I fundamentally disagree with the approach that the Government are taking in this respect. If the issue of the user abusing the system were classified as theft under the criminal law, the user would have to be taken to court and normal court procedures would apply. If it were a civil wrong, as indeed this is under copyright law, the proper process of righting that wrong against the abuse by a user would be through the civil courts. My main reason for tabling these amendments is that they would effectively delete the right of the system administrator to require ISPs to impose technical measures, subject to an appeals process, and substitute something that is closer to the normal process when a wrong is alleged through our legal system. That is to say that technical measures—sanctions—would not be applied until the courts system had agreed that they should be applied. I have never denied that there are rights accruing to the rights holders and that some process is needed in order that those rights are recognised. What I object to is the process, where it is only once the sanction has been agreed to be applied that there is an appeals process. I recognise that these clauses say that, if the appeals process is triggered, the sanction should not be applied, but that is a second-stage process as compared with the normal law. What I really want on record from the Government, and what I still do not understand about the attitude of the Government and the industry, is why the normal rule of law cannot apply to this form of copyright infringement, whereas it does apply to all other forms of copyright infringement. If somebody is complaining about a breach of patent, for example, they go to the courts. I want a clearer explanation from the Government of why that should not apply in this case. If we are to take this forward, we need that on the record and we need to know whether public opinion is prepared to accept it. There are serious problems at the point where this comes to be imposed, particularly if it is imposed against individuals rather than, as I would accept was necessary, against people who are making serious commercial money out of this process. I think that the Government will be faced with a serious backlash. I say to the opposition Bench that that may be an alternative Government, so all three Front Benches should take note of the politics of this. Part of the backlash will be about the fact that due or normal process has not been observed. I have no hope that my noble friend the Minister will accept my amendments, but they raise a fundamental principle, on which I find it difficult to defend the Government’s position and which I think the Government, certainly at the point of application, are going to find difficult to explain to the British people once these measures are put into place and enforced. I beg to move.