Digital Economy Bill Gets Second Commons Reading

The controversial Digital Economy Bill is receiving its second reading in the House of Commons despite requests from MPs from all three major parties to put off the debate until the new Parliament. Turnout for the reading has been very low and even the Conservative shadow minister, who supports it, has described it as “an Amstrad, not an iPod”.

During House of Commons Business, Harriet Harman rejected calls from MPs including Labour’s Tom Watson, the Conservatives’ Roger Gale and David Howarth of the Liberal Democrats for the Bill to be delayed till the next Parliament for a fuller debate. Given the Bill includes things which are “highly controversial,” said David Howarth, “surely she should say that the government will not go through with this.”

“Twenty thousand people have emailed their MPs about this,” pointed out Tom Watson, arguing that the Bill clearly was controversial.

The Bill is having a full second reading debate today, and has already had extensive discussion in the House of Lords – including seven days in committee – said Harriet Harman, leader of the House of Commons.

She also promised some further scrutiny in the next Parliament, “at the point when the regulations are made,” through use of the “super-affirmative procedure” set out in the Parliamentary Reform Act 2001. There will also be “public consultation” over the details of the regulations, by which Ofcom and the courts will monitor interventions by copyright owners against those infringing coyright, when these are finally set out, she said.

“£200 million” lost in copyright theft

In the debate which followed during the Bill’s second reading in the House of Commons, Ben Bradshaw the  Culture, Media and Sport Secretary (left), argued that the Bill was urgently needed to support Britain’s digital and creative economy, claiming that copyright infringements were depriving the sector of £200 million in revenue, and putting two million jobs at risk.

“I can fully understand the frustration felt by my colleagues,” said Bradshaw, “but there will be damage to the digital economy if there is further delay.” He added: “Hundreds of millions of pounds is hemorrhaging from the digital economy. If we don’t do something about it, it will pose a serous threat to our creative sector.”

Bradshaw attempted to reassure critics that cutting subscribers off would be a last resort after letters had been sent, and most people would amend their behaviour before that happened (which assumes the letters are sent to the actual infringer, of course).

For the Liberal Democrats, Don Foster led an attack on the Bill, while the Tory shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt laid into the bill heavily over various flaws, before saying with lost royalties at stake, “the measure is imperfect, but the sensible thing to do is to let it through.”

Despite the controversy, by 5.30pm, there were only around a dozen MPs in the House debating the bill.

The UK Pirate Party intends to make this an issue in the General Election announced today.