---

Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, the extended licensing proposals allow the copyright owner to opt out of an extended licensing scheme at any time. If the copyright owner wants all their works to be removed from a licensing scheme, there would be no need for them to specify them, but if they wanted just one or a few rights to be removed, they would naturally need to specify them in order for the collecting society to identify those rights and remove them from the scheme. That actually answers a question raised by the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley in the previous debate. I suggest that there is no need to add ““specifically”” and I hope that this will persuade noble Lords not to press their amendments. I welcome what I believe is the intention of Amendment 280—to protect the interests of copyright owners who may be affected by the establishment of an extended licensing scheme. I assure noble Lords that the powers in the Bill will allow for regulations requiring the Secretary of State to consult with those likely to be affected before authorising such a scheme. We intend to consult as widely as possible, allowing us to take account of the views of different interest groups. Regarding Amendment 281, there are powers in new Section 116A for the Secretary of State to determine in regulations how long royalties collected for the use of orphan works will be kept and for their disposal if the owner is not identified at the end of that period. Those powers may be extended to cover orphan works licensed under an extended licensing scheme, so it is unclear why this provision would need to apply to royalties from works which are not orphan but are licensed under extended licensing schemes. An authorised licensing body will be able to distribute royalties to owners of works which are not orphan, so it is unnecessary to make provision for the distribution of those sums if they are unclaimed. The noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, asked whether we were intending this to go beyond orphan works; the answer is yes. Extended licensing is not a new business model that will be imposed on different sectors. Any licensing body wishing to extend its repertoire will need to make a business decision to do so, presumably with the consent of the rights holders on behalf of whom it acts. It will then need to make a specific application for authorisation from the Secretary of State, who may grant that authorisation if certain specified criteria which have been consulted on are met. The Bill does not give the Government the power to impose extended licensing schemes on any sector that they wish. Amendment 282 requires the Secretary of State to put forward proposals on the use of the powers introduced by Clause 42 to make regulations providing for extended licensing for, "““music, film and broadcast works in electronic form … within one year””," of the Bill becoming an Act. I have made it clear that the Government are committed to consulting before introducing regulations under these powers. The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, noted the fact for the Committee that music rights holders and an ISP will be coming up with an alternative to piracy; we await that with interest and have said that we welcome those developments. The noble Lord is right to describe the nature of the Bill as a breathing space; in the world of IT, we know that there is no such thing as a stasis, so his assessment is probably right—and that is probably why Clause 17 somehow came into being, but I hesitate to mention that again. I hope that, in the light of those assurances and explanations, the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.