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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I do not know whether to respond to the thoughtfulness of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, in grouping together all his remaining amendments on the Marshalled List at this late stage of the day and speaking to them, or to his threats that the Government are in for very serious trouble on Report if my responses are not good enough. I will respond in a similarly constructive way. I am all too aware that he somewhat syncopated the quality and range of the arguments that he might have put in defence of his amendments, although, by the same token, the Government’s replies will not be as extensive as they might have been, so I undertake here and now to write to him with a fuller response. I am well aware that there will be conspicuous gaps in my response to his arguments and to the issues that he raises, although I hope to be able to cover some of the more significant points of principle so that we clarify the position. Amendment 285 deals with the format-shifting question, to which the Government have given the most careful consideration both in the recent copyright strategy and in the second-stage consultation on the Gowers recommendations on copyright exceptions. We have concluded that a UK-only solution will not be able to deliver the kind of access and use that private individuals would like while at the same time respecting the needs of rights holders for appropriate remuneration, and that a solution that is suitable for the digital age can be delivered only in an EU-wide context. The noble Lord will appreciate that we have a great deal more work to do in this area, and I hope he will recognise that we cannot accept the amendment. Amendments 286 and 287 deal with artists’ right to remarket. As stated in the recent copyright strategy, the Government plan to draw together a group to develop model contracts or contract clauses that strike a fair balance between the rights of creators and publishers to form a benchmark for good practice. We are already working with industry representatives to take this forward, and we recognise the importance of this point. I do not think that the noble Lord spoke to Amendment 289, which is the only amendment for which I have a specific answer that might have been regarded as satisfactory and all encompassing. He did, however, speak to Amendment 291, which would take away the control of the creator. We do not think that there is a compelling policy reason to do so in this case. Likewise, we are worried about Amendment 292. Interfering with the balance of current rights and exceptions would have far-reaching consequences for those who run web services and for rights holders and consumers. There is also a real danger of unintended consequences when legislating for particular technology-specific issues. We therefore do not think that it would be right to legislate further in this area without having examined fully whether a further exception is necessary, and without having determined the full consequences of these actions. I recognise that the noble Lord put forward an important argument in this area, and this is certainly one of the responses which I know he will say in a moment or two is somewhat less than satisfactory. I will certainly undertake to write to him with regard to that amendment, and to flesh out our arguments on the other amendments. Finally, on Amendment 292BA, we are not clear whether all of the activities within the scope of this amendment would infringe copyright in any event. In some cases, it would depend on the circumstances of a particular case. The amendments may legitimise some aspects of unlawful file-sharing and so would of course conflict with one of the aims of the Bill. The Government want—and the noble Lord did say how important it was for us to have a definition of what we wanted from the web—web users to continue to be able to use the web freely for legitimate uses, but we do not want to condone or to encourage copyright infringement. Those are the principles which underpin our approach to the web. Once again, I know that I am craving the noble Lord’s indulgence with such a sparse response to some intensive arguments, which he mercifully at this late hour kept to a few well-chosen words. We will write to him on all those amendments and I know very well that if he is less than satisfied with the responses on that very mildly-presented point, we may hear more from him. We will certainly bear that in mind in the letters that we write to him. I hope that he will withdraw his amendment.