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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, while I have much sympathy with the objective of ensuring that people who have nothing to do with online infringement of copyright are left in peace to enjoy all the riches that the internet has to offer, I do not think that this is an amendment that we should accept. One practical difficulty with it would be defining precisely what we mean by "legitimate users". For example, does this mean that it applies to users of accounts not subject to copyright infringement reports, or is this about people who have not infringed in households where the account is subject to copyright infringement reports? Certainly, I would expect that we could tie ourselves into legal knots trying to be clear what we mean, and we may not in any case agree precisely what scope the amendment is supposed to have. Fortunately, I do not think that the amendment is really necessary. The other criteria within clause 13(1) serve to ensure that the provisions are properly targeted and focused, and in particular that they are objectively justifiable, not allowed to discriminate unduly against particular people or categories of people, and are proportionate to their purpose. This is certainly sufficient to ensure that subscribers who are not involved in online infringement of copyright have nothing to fear from these provisions. We have outlined the appeal procedures and what we feel would be reasonable measures to protect accounts against lawful infringements. We have taken a number of considerations into account. I hope that in the light of that and the practical definitional difficulties, the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.