On the day that David Cameron has promised to further democratise the legislative process, the Right2Link’s Downing Street e-petition calling for statutory protection for the right to link has clocked up 1,180 signatories.

It’s a long way from the 100,000 signatories that Cameron says will be required for an issue to be debated formally in the House of Commons but the issue continues to cause a stink and has passed the 500-threshold where it requires a response from Downing Street.

The move follows an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill tabled by Lord Lucas that would ensure “protection of the right to link to publicly available information on the internet.”

But the NLA’s managing director David Pugh said that he believed that Lord Lucas’ amendment was a bid to flush out views and is unlikely to become law.

“It is a fundamental principle of copyright that content owners can control the way in which their content is exploited. The market adequately addresses this issue already through website terms and conditions and licensing,” said Pugh.