My Lords, I am afraid that this House will get rather tired of my voice over the next few minutes. I beg to move Amendment 84AHA. This amendment seeks to clarify the matters to be taken into account by a court in exercising its discretion to award additional damages in certain cases of copyright infringement. The power to award such damages for copyright infringement is contained in Section 97 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and Section 191J covers infringement of performers’ rights. As the provisions are identical in form, I will speak only to copyright infringement.
Additional damages are a form of damages that are intended to have a punitive or deterrent effect on the infringer, and are awarded in exceptional cases, in addition to the compensatory damages based on a reasonable royalty that are the usual remedy for copyright infringement. They are often referred to as “flagrancy damages”. Some kinds of copyright infringement are carried out with such flagrant disregard for the rights of the copyright owner that it is appropriate to have a sanction available to the civil courts that both contains an element of punishment of the infringer and which, more importantly, acts as a deterrent to others who might consider doing something similar. The sanction is not often used, but has been applied, for example, where the defendant has already been found to have infringed and then repeats the infringement.
This amendment will bring the provision up to date to reflect the changes being made by this Bill in relation to orphan works. Your Lordships will recollect that it is proposed that before any work can be declared an orphan it must be subject to a diligent search for its owner. There is considerable disquiet in some parts of the creative community about how conscientious all those who wish to use orphan works will be in carrying out such a search. Of course, we expect that in due course there will be some detail, which the Minister has described in detail, of the requirements set out in the relevant regulations. They will be designed to minimise the possibility that people will take inappropriate advantage of this provision.
None the less, given the enormous potential commercial benefits, it is entirely likely that some organisations will seek to test how little they have to do by way of diligent search. In particular, one of the concerns raised with me is that a potential user may argue that, as they have carried out a search in relation to one item in a group of works, they should be permitted to assume that the result will be the same for the others, and that they are relieved of the need to carry out separate searches. We debated this only a few groups ago.
The protection that this affords to people is that before their work can be declared an orphan and used without their authorisation, there must be a diligent search. This simple amendment deals with the temptation
to use the orphan works provisions in a manner that is clearly not intended by the Bill. It spells out that failure to carry out a diligent search will be one of the considerations that the court takes into account when deciding whether or not to award additional damages. It will not be definitive of the question, just one factor to be taken into account.
This would send a clear message that the new freedoms provided by these provisions are not to be abused, especially not at the expense of creative individuals who do not have the resources of large corporations standing behind them to enforce their rights. This is an important aspect and one that is entirely consistent with the policy direction behind these measures. I beg to move.
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