Following an unprecedented fifth defeat in the House of Lords, the Government has re-tabled amendments to the Data Bill that Peers have already dismissed, and in doing so has once again deliberately taken out all protection for copyright owners.
Baroness Kidron, and Peers across the House - including many from the Labour benches - made clear that the Bill should contain transparency provisions to be implemented within a set timeframe. But the Government has stood in the way of the Lords and failed to listen to the clarion call from 2.4 million creative workers who rely on copyright law being enforced for their wages and to control their property. The repeated and deliberate actions of the Government in taking out amendments that would allow transparency is a clear admission that they are content for the law to be broken on a mass scale.
The Government amendments ‘in lieu’ are made in bad faith, since they do not cover the subject area of Baroness Kidron’s amendment: that of transparency provisions that would enforce existing copyright law. The Government amendments merely make minor changes to their own reporting requirements. It is not necessary for these changes to be on the face of the Bill, as demonstrated by the fact that Ministers had already committed to these changes verbally at two previous stages. Once again they have relied on obfuscation and procedure rather than putting forward remedy or argument.
Overturning the House of Lords without negotiation or compromise breaks convention, and once again the creative industries have been hung out to dry by a Government that stands by whilst their property is being stolen on an industrial scale.
Baroness Kidron said: “The Government has repeatedly taken all protections for UK copyrights holders out of the Data Bill. In doing so they have shafted the creative industries, and they have proved willing to decimate the UK’s second biggest industrial sector.
“Copyright is a human right, a moral right and an economic right under UK law. It appears that the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister no longer believe in the rule of law. It is a sad day for the country and for Government – and it adds another sector to the growing number that have an unbridgeable gap of trust with the Government.
“They have lied to Parliament, and they are lying to the sector. The Government is going to break copyright to benefit big tech, at the expense of UK AI companies and the creative industries. It is an act of economic self-harm.”
The Government is able table further amendments – giving them the power to regulate for transparency within a set timeframe – before the Bill returns to the Commons on Tuesday. Baroness Kidron can lay amendments on Wednesday morning as the Bill returns to the Lords.
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