DEB - Government amends but doesn't fix
The Government has published the two lists of amendments that it will be be proposing in the Lords report stage next week - there are separate amendments on copyright and other matters. These amend the Bill text as it finished the committee stage.
Unfortunately the amendments don't address the problems with the definitions of "Subscriber" and "Internet Access Provider" that mean that all kinds of organisations, as well as domestic broadband subscribers, will become subject to the Bill's provisions.
The main changes are to provide more detail in areas of the processes highlighted as unclear during the Committee Stage:
- Specify time limits for copyright infringement reports: these must be sent to the ISP within a month of the alleged infringement and forwarded to the subscriber within a further month;
- Ensure that OFCOM's reports will be published;
- State that the Secretary of State may not order the implementation of technical measures until the initial notification process has been in place for a year, and then only if OFCOM have recommended that this is necessary and proportionate to deal with the remaining copyright infringement problem;
- Give details of the appeals process (including the grounds for appeal) against either an infringement notice or the imposition of technical measures.
There is one small recognition that all subscribers may not be the same, in that ISPs are now required to consider what advice is appropriate when informing alleged infringers of the measures that they may take to prevent copyright infringement. However I fear that this refers more to the fact that some subscribers may not be comfortable configuring port blocks into their wireless routers, rather than that some "subscribers" may be organisations with tens of thousands of users and very high speed networks. [UPDATE - it seems I may have been pessimistic and that this may indeed be a recognition that different measures will be appropriate for different types of susbcribers]
