We now move onto the third part of the Bill, entitled "Powers in relation to internet domain registries". There were three clauses in this section, 18 to 20.

Clause 18 : Powers in relation to internet domain registries. Quite a bit of discussion on this one, and lots of amendments agreed to, all of which came from the government. The first amendment was connected with domain names, specifically giving the Secretary of State powers to stop the misuse of them, but only over ones that appear to be connected to the UK, such as .uk and .gb, but also potential future ones, "such as ".london", or even ".britfishshops". I am sure noble Lords will well appreciate that the Government will certainly be concerned about any phishing activities, if you will pardon the pun, associated with this domain. I see that joke went down really well. You can't win them all, as someone once said". His attempt at a joke wasn't entirely lost, however, as the Earl of Erroll pointed out that there was some merit in what he said: "Would "sh" appear twice in the middle, or not? There is a phishing opportunity there".

Interesting amendment from the government: they removed lines 37 to 39 from page 19, which gives the definition of "internet domain" as "an internet domain indicated by the last element of an internet domain name or by that element together with one or more of the preceding elements of the name". This is obviously related to the flurry of amendments which make the type of domain names affected by the legislation much more specific. That definition was replaced by a much more in-depth one in Amendment 225B.

Clause 18 passed - Amendment 214A, 215A, 221A, 221B, 223A, 223B, 223C, 225A, 225B agreed

Discussion resumed on the 3rd February.

Clause 19 : Appointment of manager of internet domain registry. Things got off to an interesting start as Lord Howard of Rising tested the opinion of the Committee on his Amendment 226A. The amendment was designed to "limit the authority of the appointed manager to deal with the rectification of a specific problem or problems", but both Lord Young of Norwood Green and Lord Clement-Jones though that such limiting of power was already included. Lord Howard disagreed. After the order to 'clear the bar', the result was victory for the Not-Contents, scoring 146 to 79 (I do wonder where all these people come from, as I generally see less than 10 people actually debating the issues). Lord Howard didn't get his way.

Surprisingly, the Earl of Erroll's amendment was agreed to by the government, one of the few times that an amendment not tabled by the government has been accepted. It was a very simple one, just giving more flexibility, as the original wording made things a bit tight.

Clause 19 passed - Amendment 225C & 227 agreed

Clause 20 : Application to court to alter constitution of internet domain registry. The exact same amendment as in the other clauses (changing "an" to "a qualifying") was done here, too. No other amendments discussed.

Clause 20 passed - Amendment 229A agreed