Intellectual Property Bill [Lords]

Debate between Jim Dowd and John Leech

Monday 20th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Leech]

Yes, I think time is up for the likes of Sky and Virgin. They have been making a lot of money on the back of this for some time, and it is about time we brought it to an end.

By contrast, in the United States News Corporation has led the campaign for channels to receive fees from platform operators, which has resulted in over $2 billion being available for investment in original content and news production, so I urge the Minister to bring forward an amendment repealing section 73 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.

[Jim Dowd]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on reading out so thoroughly the briefing provided by ITV on this issue, but is it not a fact that as long as there is an obligation to carry the terrestrial channels, the Government could either remove that obligation or charge the pay-TV companies for using the material, particularly Virgin, which has the TiVo machine that allows people to build up private on-demand libraries without paying any of the costs or having to watch any of the advertising?

[Mr Leech]

The fact remains that the likes of cable platforms are making significant amounts of money on the back of public sector broadcasting, which often invests a lot of money in original content. A very easy way of bringing this to a conclusion is to repeal section 73 of the 1988 Act, which is why I urge the Minister to introduce that through an amendment to the Bill.

In conclusion, although I welcome the Bill I hope the Minister will recognise its limitations and commit to addressing at least some of the concerns that have been raised. This Bill could deal with a number of the outstanding issues in relation to intellectual property.