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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 57. We are still talking about the initial letter of notification and the evidence that is required to issue such a notification. I know that the Minister was getting a bit irritated with the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, but such a notice suggests that we are moving into sanctions, and for sanctions you need to differentiate motivation in the long run. This is the beginning of a process. It may be a light-touch beginning but, in the end, if compliance is not achieved, we are into sanctions in stage 2. Therefore, if evidence is being gathered at this early stage, it is useful to identify the motivation of the unlawful downloader or file-sharer. I simply suggest in the amendment that, if there is an allegation that the individual is making money out of this breach of copyright, that should be known at the earliest possible stage. That will then have consequences regarding the nature of any sanction if there is continuous non-compliance at a later stage. That seems to me very sensible and it is a way of sorting those who are currently engaged in unlawful file-sharing from the eventual hard core whom this regime will have to tackle. The amendment may not be in quite the form that the Minister would like but it would provide a useful differentiation and would be a useful addition to the background evidence for the first intervention. It would imply that not everyone was as guilty as everyone else in this respect. In other words, if you were making money from unlawful file-sharing, ultimately you would expect a heavier sanction if you did not comply than if you were a casual user. It is sensible to establish that at the beginning and I hope that the Minister will at least have a look at the possibility of including such an amendment. I beg to move.