Lords drop Clause 17, add power to ban sites

The House of Lords has dropped the controversial Clause 17 from the Digital Economy Bill, but added a new section that would allow the Government to block access to websites that were hosting illegally shared content.

Clause 17 would have allowed the Government to change copyright law using a tool called "statutory instrument", without taking to to parliament first.

While that news will cheer rights campaigners, a pair of Conservative and Liberal Democrat Lords also tabled a change that would "prevent access to specified online locations for the prevention of online copyright infringement".

If approved, it means courts will be able to prevent access to websites if they are found to have a "substantial proportion" of such content available, but must consider if the site has done anything to stop the copyright infringement.

In a post on the Open Rights Group blog, director Jim Killock said: "This would open the door to a massive imbalance of power in favour of large copyright holding companies."

"Individuals and small businesses would be open to massive 'copyright attacks' that could shut them down, just by the threat of action," he added.

Read on for more about the evolution of the Digital Economy Bill.