Digital Economy Bill amendment sparks fresh debate

It emerged this week that a recent amendment to the UK’s emerging Digital Economy Bill (DEB) appears to have been written by record label trade body the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

Amendment 120a displaces the previous Clause 17 of the Bill, enabling the High Court to use its powers to shut down any copyright infringing websites with a “substantial” amount of relevant material and could have serious implications for popular music and video streaming sites such as YouTube. The amendment was passed this week in the House of Lords by 165 votes to 140.

This part of the DEB has proved to be controversial, with a consortium of web companies and ISPs, endorsed by famous comedian and writer Stephen Fry signing a formal letter opposing the amendment this week.

Liberal Democrat Lord Clement-Jones put the amendment forward to the House of Lords. However, the proposal is almost identical in tone and wording to a letter sent to political parties by the BPI at the beginning of this year.

This point is enabling campaigners to argue that the House of Lords have accepted the views of the BPI wholesale without a broad range of industry consultation, resulting in a rushed and ill-considered attempt to appease certain sectors of the commercial music industry.

The BPI said in a statement: to The Guardian: “This version of the proposal was sent to the Government and also to the opposition parties. The Government decided it wanted to go a different way. The opposition parties, while not fully agreeing with it, saw it as a good framework for what they wanted to put down".

The Government appear to be trying to push the DEB through before the next election but there are increasing fears that this amendment could give courts the power to shut down websites without appropriate judicial process.

Have your say: What are your thoughts on the development of the DEB? Does it matter that the BPI influenced this amendment so much? What will the implications be for sites such as YouTube? What is your opinion of the Government’s approach to this key issues facing the industry?