Digital Economy Bill

Baroness Wilcox Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Tuesday 13th December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for introducing this welcome Bill. Increasing the maximum sentence for online copyright infringement to 10 years, making it the same as that for physical copyright infringement, is a long overdue recognition of reality. To some extent, therefore, Clause 27, while most welcome, is merely playing catch-up. For many years, serious offenders in the area of online infringement have been prosecuted for offences such as conspiracy to defraud, rather than under the 1988 Act, as the only way of securing an appropriate penalty in excess of two years’ imprisonment.

As a former Minister in this area, I admit that I must take some responsibility for this. I must also, however, urge my noble friend the Minister to ensure that, going forward, we are not simply playing-catch up in a world of rapid technological change. In this respect I agree fully with the former Secretary of State, the right honourable member for Maldon, who said in another place that although the Government are sending a clear message about the seriousness of online infringement by equalising the penalties, more must be done. The Government need to get ahead of the curve on online infringement fully to build on their promise to support our creative industries, which play such a vital role in promoting jobs and growth in our economy, contributing more than £84 billion to it this year alone.

By “get ahead of the curve”, I mean that the Government must do more than just equalise the penalties for physical and online infringement. They must ensure that online infringement is deterred in the strongest possible terms. The scope for damage caused by online infringement can be much greater than for physical infringement. This trend will only become more significant as people continue to consume ever more content online, whether legally or illegally, rather than in physical form. Indeed, this year, consumers for the first time spent more money on streaming and downloading films than on purchasing or renting them on DVD.

As a result, the scale of the challenge posed to our creative industries by online infringement is vast. In the second quarter of 2016 alone, 78 million music tracks and 51 million films or TV programmes were accessed illegally online. Within a matter of seconds, infringing content can be uploaded to the web with the potential to be downloaded millions of times, causing vast losses to rights holders. By comparison, it is hard to see how physical infringement, perhaps in the form of counterfeit DVDs, unless done on an industrial scale over many years, could have such an impact.

I note in this regard a case raised in the other place by the Secretary of State, that of Paul Mahoney, a Londonderry man who set up websites which facilitated the illegal sharing of films online. In convicting Mahoney, the court found that he had caused losses to rights holders of several million pounds. The prosecution suggested a figure as high as £12 million, with up to £120 million being put at risk though his activities. All this was done by one man working alone from his bedroom.

I therefore ask the Minister whether the Government will consider further measures, either in this Bill or going forward, to ensure that never again is the law behind where it needs to be in order fully to protect our creative industries, the contribution they make to our economy and the almost 2 million people they employ from the growing and potentially devastating threat posed to them by online infringement.