LONDON—New laws governing internet security, digital property, and file sharing could be bundled through the “wash up” before the general election expected in May this year.
The Digital Economy Bill reached the final House of Lords stage on Monday, March 15th, with little time to digest a small flurry of amendments before it goes to the House of Commons for six more processes.
The nub of contention in the Bill is tighter control of illegal downloading and file sharing by having the holders of copyright materials be able to force internet service providers (ISPs) to shut down websites which use copyrighted materials without permission.
Lord Whitty said in the debate in the Lords on Monday that it was “a bad Bill".
“It is bad for the digital rights holders to press their interests in this way, when there are alternatives, and it is bad for the Government to risk alienation of a very significant part of the population by enforcing these measures.
“There are alternative ways of moving to a different system of accessing copyright material on the internet. Lawful systems of file sharing exist in the music industry and elsewhere; it is just that they have a very low recognition by the public,” he said.
Labour peer Lord Whitty has been a minister for Transport and also a minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He is currently a member of the Board of the Environment Agency and Chair of Consumer Focus, a statutory organisation campaigning for a fair deal for consumers in the UK.
He said that a survey conducted by Consumer Focus indicated that “75 per cent of the population do not understand what is lawful and unlawful” regarding copyrighted material on the internet and that a “rather higher proportion, when told what is lawful and unlawful, do not support those laws”.
The survey also showed that, of the 20 or so lawful systems of file sharing existing in the music industry and elsewhere, none has received an awareness level above single figures in percentage terms. “Yet, ultimately, at various points in this debate, we have all agreed that a move to lawful systems of file sharing is the aim of this measure.”
Added in early March by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Clement-Jones and the Conservative peer Lord Howard of Rising, Amendment 120a would let copyright holders gain high court injunctions forcing ISPs to block access to websites that have received copyright-infringement claims.
Google, Yahoo, Talk Talk, eBay, Facebook, Orange, and BT signed an open letter to the Financial Times which said, “Put simply, blocking access as envisaged by this clause would both widely disrupt the internet in the UK and elsewhere and threaten freedom of speech and the open internet, without reducing copyright infringement as intended.”
The March 10th letter was co-signed by Stephen Fry, Labour MP Tom Watson – the former Minister for Digital Engagement, campaign groups, and academics.
A Talk Talk sponsored survey on March 12th showed that 71 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds would continue downloading illegal material despite the Bill and would use undetectable methods.
This led to the consideration that surveillance of the internet for terrorist links could be hampered as terrorists followed suit on the net and encrypted all messages.
In a leaked e-mail from record-industry lobbyists the British Phonographic Institute (BPI), there was speculation that MI5 may have paid for the Talk Talk survey.
The oddness of the UK legislation-making system means the Bill could be changed after the Lord’s debate and before it comes to the House of Commons (called The Other Place by Lords).
The Earl Of Errol, Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Communications, reminded the House that other material would be “inserted somehow between here and The Other Place".
“We’ve got no idea what it looks like ... it’s a complete and absolute abuse of Parliamentary process - I’m not sure why we sit and debate at all.”
