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Digital Top Stories
Lib Dems want DEB to be held off until after election
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 31 March 2010
So, this could throw a spanner in the works. Well, not really, if the Tories play ball, but still, it will add further momentum to those who oppose the controversial Digital Economy Bill becoming law during the so-called wash-up.
As previously reported, the DEB – which includes the three-strikes proposals in its copyright section – won’t be passed by the House Of Commons before parliament is dissolved for the General Election. However, if the Tories back the Labour government’s proposals, it can become law anyway during a period called the wash-up, where government legislation that is approved by the main opposition party can still become law, albeit without any amendments being made, on the basis that if the top guard of both the Labour and Conservative parties are in agreement, that the proposals would be passed by the Commons can be taken as a given.
Those who oppose the Bill have been very critical of the proposal that such a controversial bit of legislation be passed during the pre-Election parliamentary fudge. And now the Lib Dems, who have been generally supportive of the Bill to date, have joined that opposition. They want the DEB to be set aside, and re-introduced in the next parliament.
The Liberal’s chief whip Paul Burstow told the Guardian: “During the negotiation and discussion in the wash-up we will make it clear that we think that it isn’t a suitable way to deal with the issues remaining such as site blocking. We will put amendments down and make the case and hope that the government and the Conservatives will agree that it shouldn’t proceed at this stage”.
The ‘site blocking’ issue relates to Clause 18 (formerly Clause 17), the part of the copyright section of the Bill that isn’t concerned with three-strikes, but rather other websites which host or link to infringing content. The clause is in there because organisations like record label trade body the BPI want the DEB to help them tackle companies who own infringing websites, as well as individual web-users who file-share.
It was the Lib Dems who put forward Clause 18 in the first place (as amendment 120a) with wording pretty much based on the BPI’s own proposals. However, following a backlash from the wider web industry – including giants like Google and eBay – the Liberals tried to amend their amendment in the Lords. However, the government said there wasn’t time, and got the Lords to pass the clause as it was currently written, promising to give the provision more consideration at the Commons stage.
That consideration has now happened, and an alternative Clause 18 was put forward by government yesterday, ahead of the next Commons reading of the Bill next week. The government says their new amendments should overcome concerns that the powers given to the courts by Clause 18 could be used to block access to legitimate search engines like Google, who sometimes inadvertently link people to unlicensed content sources.
Whether the content industries or the web lobby will be happy with the reworked Clause 18 remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen if the Lib Dems joining the ‘this needs more debate’ campaign will influence Tory support for the Bill during the wash-up. As previously reported, given the Tories support the DEB’s copyright proposals, which are unpopular in many circles, it’s in their interest to see them passed on Labour’s watch, rather than in the early months of the next government, when they may well be in charge, and would therefore be deemed responsible for the unpopular legislation.
