Tories and Lib Dems to oppose controversial Digital Economy Bill clause

Controversial proposals that would give Lord Mandelson unprecedented powers to amend copyright laws will be jettisoned next week when the Government suffers the first large defeat of its flagship media plans.

Conservative and Liberal Democrat lords will unite to vote down Clause 17 of the Digital Economy Bill, which has been criticised by internet giants such as Google and Yahoo!, when the Bill is put to vote in its report stage.

The music and film industries will be dismayed by the two parties’ refusal to sanction the clause, which would have allowed Lord Mandelson to fast-track legislation to combat websites that host pirated content.

The Government maintains that the plans are necessary to “future proof” the Bill against emerging methods of piracy. Separate proposals, to take action against peer-to-peer filesharing, in which internet users connect to each other’s computers to share files, still have broad agreement across Parliament.

But internet firms and the Opposition said that despite attempts by Lord Mandelson to water down the proposals and increase parliamentary scrutiny of any fast-tracked legislation, via measures such as a 60-day consultation period, the proposals still allowed ministers to impose arbitrary measures.

Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative Shadow Culture Secretary, said his party will vote against the clause next week. He added: “The Government has failed to address any of the concerns we raised with them. They still want a wide ranging and unconstitutional power yet can’t tell us what they want to use it for.

“I’m afraid they’ve missed an opportunity to tackle these very difficult problems. Trying to rush through controversial powers at the tail end of a Parliament is simply no way to make law and not something we will be supporting.”

Don Foster, the Lib Dem culture spokesman, said his party would join the Tories in opposing Clause 17 at the vote, which is scheduled to happen before Wednesday. He said: “We believe that it will not serve the purpose of helping the creative industries.”

The BPI, which represents record labels, said it was disappointed. A spokesman said: “The threat of non-peer-to-peer downloading is growing at an alarming rate, and we have consistently called for the Digital Economy Bill to be future-proofed with tools to deal with it.

“All the main parties agree on these principles, so it is disappointing that they haven’t yet been able to reach agreement on a legislative solution.”

The Government said it would not table further amendments to try to get support for the clause.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: “The range of amendments we have laid limit the scope of the clause and strengthen the ability of parliament to scrutinise the use of this power. We believe that they take account of concerns raised and will be making no further amendments."