Jeremy has written of progress in getting the government to accept an important amendent on digital piracy, but remains concerned that the Digital Economy Bill may still yet fail to reach the statute books before the General Election:
‘Yesterday I took a call from Stephen Timms. To my surprise – and delight – he said that the government has decided to accept the substance of the amendment put forward by ourselves and the Lib Dems to tackle digital piracy. We are trying to find a policy that allows the blocking of websites set up to promote illegal downloading of copyrighted digital content – but does not impact on the vast majority of legitimate web users. We also want a structure that encourages people who create digital content to innovate with new business models (like Spotify does for the music industry) rather than look to legislation to protect their current business models. It is a delicate balance: if the law is too heavy-handed, it will stifle innovation; but if it does nothing at all to protect copyright people will simply not be prepared to invest in the creation of new digital content – something that would be very damaging for the UK’s creative industries.
I think we have found a solution. The key changes to the amendment that we put down earlier reverse the presumption that the costs of any court order will be carried by ISPs, who will now not have to pay costs unless they act unreasonably. It also strengthens the national security provisions to ensure that no site blocking policy hampers the work of the security services.
A rare example of opposition parties and government working together? Yes but it will still be nip and tuck to get the digital economy bill onto the statute book before the election so the battle is not won yet.’
