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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I promise not to repeat what I said in the previous debate. There are two issues here. First, if Clause 17 stays as it is, it is a matter of great controversy in this House. Whether the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, moves his amendment tonight or a debate is staged I would have to support it if the Bill stays the same. However, I was comforted by what the Minister said in response to the previous group of amendments. He said that he would look at the point again. I would suggest that he looks at it again in two forms and promises to do that at the end of this debate. The first aspect is that the way in which Clause 17 is drafted in relation to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act is very wide. Part 1 of the Act itself is very wide and subsection (4) of this clause makes it even wider by referring to other enactments "whenever made". That needs to be narrowed down very significantly. Even if we accept that to some extent we have to future technology-proof the provisions we have here, the provision could be narrowed significantly and it would then be more acceptable to the House, particularly with a super-affirmative resolution. The other aspect is the fundamental approach. I say to my noble friend Lord Triesman and to the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, who is no longer in his place, that the long-term health of the creative industries depends on us moving to a legal form of access to the copyright which they control. Clampdowns, crackdowns and prosecution through the civil courts or through the new system will not return a penny to the copyright holders. The whole purpose of any change ought to be to move to legal systems and new, legal business models. If we could change the copyright law or any other law to enable that system to be slotted in more easily, perhaps we could use something like Clause 17 to do so. However, if Clause 17 is concerned only with extending crackdown provisions on unlawful file-sharing arrangements to other prospective and actual technologies, I still will not be able to support it. If it was more positive and narrower, then when the Minister comes back with a revised clause he might meet with less hostility. For the moment, I would have to support opposition to the clause were it pursued and the Minister did not give me the comfort I seek.