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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, finally, unlike in Arthurian legend, we have reached our version of the holy grail—the final amendment. I agree that in order to protect the interests of rights holders it is vital that loans are limited in the way that this amendment suggests to ensure that libraries are not able to provide the public with unlimited access to an author’s work. However, while the phrase ““one copy”” presents no immediate problems in respect of hard-format printed or audio works, it is not sufficient to cover all the means by which libraries may offer soft-copy electronic works to readers. In those circumstances, it may be that a library holds just one copy of a work, but has, directly or indirectly with the retailer, purchased permission to lend the work to a fixed number of people more than one at any one time. Crucially, therefore, it is not the number of copies of a work held by a library which should dictate the number of times that work can be loaned out at any one time, but the number of permissions to loan it out, which the library has purchased. It is the Government’s intention that such limits are placed on a library’s ability to make concurrent loans, but we do not think that the proposed amendment would satisfactorily achieve these aims in respect of the very media—e-books, et cetera—to which the noble Lord referred, which Clause 44 seeks to bring within the purview of the public lending rights scheme. We agree with the objective behind the amendment and intend to address this issue in secondary legislation. While the suggestion is correct in its intention, I trust that in the light of my explanation and assurance that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.