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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Addington and I did not make ourselves available for the digital economy tour, but we turned up and therefore were pressed into service in the absence of three of our noble friends. These amendments in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Clement-Jones and Lord Razzall, endeavour to enhance this clause on the licensing of orphan works. Clearly, my noble friends are unhappy with the looseness of proposed new Section 116A, and believe that it needs strengthening. The noble Lord, Lord Davies of Oldham, will recall that we dealt with orphan assets on a previous occasion and another Act: the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act. Much of the discussion during the passage of that Act was over the worry and concern about assets being reunited, and in Amendment 272 of this Bill, for example, there is reference to the orphaned work and the copyright owner being ““searched for””. There are now several amendments to Clause 42, and there is real concern about whether and how, once the author returns, these matters will be dealt with. These amendments are the work of my noble friends, not me, and I place them before the Committee.