Music: Internet
Culture Media and Sport
Jim Cunningham (Coventry South, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport
(1) what steps he plans to take to reduce the amount of illegal online downloads of (a) music by UK artists and (b) UK films; and if he will make a statement;
(2) if he will assess the effects of copyright infringement on levels of employment in the creative industries.
Edward Vaizey (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Culture, Communications and Creative Industries), Business, Innovation and Skills; Wantage, Conservative)
holding answer
The Government are continuing to implement the online infringement of copyright provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2010. This will provide a route, for the first time, for rights holders to get their message about copyright infringement direct to millions of subscribers they identify as infringing their copyright. The letters sent will be informative rather than threatening, and we expect them to make a significant difference to the number of people involved in unlawful file-sharing. Useful work is also taking place between rights holders, ISPs, search engines, payment facilitators and advertising bodies to find industry-led solutions to the problem of copyright infringement.