'3 strikes' file sharing law kicks in from today
File sharing that infringes copyright under the new Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act can result in an infringement notice from today.
The Act amends the Copyright Act 1994, and repeals Section 92A, which required an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to have and “reasonably implement” a policy for terminating the accounts of repeat copyright infringers.
What does it do?
The Amendment Act as it stands today allows rights owners to issue a series of notices to ISPs notifying them of account holders who are allegedly infringing copyright through file sharing.
Rights owners must provide particular information to ISPs within 21 days of the alleged infringement. For more details, see the Amendment’s regulations here.
ISPs must then send an infringement notice to account holders no later than seven days after receiving the information from the rights holder.
An account holder can challenge an infringement notice no later than 14 days after the date of the infringement notice. Rights owners may choose to accept or reject the challenge, sending the ISP reasons for rejection within 28 days of receiving the challenge.
The notices progress from detection, to warning, to enforcement, when a rights owner may apply to the Copyright Tribunal, a panel of five independent experts. The Tribunal can fine account holders up to $15,000 or take the highly unlikely and much more difficult route of suspending an Internet account for six months from 2013 onwards.
ISPs can charge rights holders $25 for each notice sent to the ISP and rights owners must pay $200 to apply to the Tribunal.
Problems
The Amendment Act is rife with controversy. Opponents argue that the act puts the onus on account holders to prove innocence, rather than rights holders to prove guilt, that there are no provisions in the law stating when rights owners must accept a challenge, and therefore that the incentive is for rights holders to not accept challenges. Other criticism focuses on the fact that the account holder is liable, even if they are not the ones infringing copyright, meaning businesses, parents, universities and schools are at risk from whoever uses their Internet account.
Many ISPs have said they will not be ready in time for the September 1 deadline, from when notices of infringement can be backdated 21 days – to today. ISPs have also said the process is expensive and ultimately futile, since they will be snowed under with the sheer volume of infringement notices.
The Greens political party has even suggested that the government, as a provider of Internet access for hundreds, could be at risk of receiving a fine for infringement itself.
Rights owners in turn argue that the Act has been in the works for some time, that the fees for rights owners to send notices ($25 a pop) and apply to the Tribunal ($200) are high, and that copyright infringement costs New Zealand millions of dollars each year.
The Ministry of Economic Development has said the intention of the law changes is to focus on stopping illegal peer-to-peer file sharing such as sharing movies via BitTorrent. The law penalises illegal file sharing, or the illegal uploading or downloading of material, using an application of network that enables simultaneous material between many users.
Overseas, similar laws have been instated with varying results, with the United States implementing a 'Six Strikes' system that is not legally binding.
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Comments and questions28
okay dont fret folks avoiding prosecution is as easy as uaing a free public proxy server to
ask your internet address pr using a service such as leechpack.com...
this law is an ass and is easily circumvented. hopefully once theegislators realised that it has failed tp stop downloading, it will be repealed
john key again sucking up to hollywood,. and given new zealand is a cultural wasteland in terms of what films are released here and what tv shows are available (even though i hear wellywood said over and over) we are doomed to be completely disconnected from the rest of the world. shall we go back to the 6pm close as well?
Just wait for your broadband costs to go up as ISPs pass the costs of compliance on...
Even worse unsuspecting parents and those not tech savvy will be busted will the real heavy downloaders go to ground and are not caught...
If you want something broken, get a politician involved
Just another reason to leave NZ
Just another reason to leave NZ
Funny how this Bill got unanimous support from National and Labour.
Haha, I downloaded David Bowie's 'Toy' album for free... the perfect crime as it's never been released by a record conpany.
This is so stupid.
Celebrities and stars don't need any more money, they're already rich enough and losing a few hundred thousand dollars doesn't mean anything to them.
This will be a hit to people who aren't so tech-savvy and are big downloaders. This is just completely unfair.
John Key needs to stop sucking up to Hollywood and realise that this is something you can't stop. This will just make people angry.
when is this B.S law that destroys New Zealand gonna be removed?
Im so sick of this Generation of people in parliament.
Well, no matter what law the government will bring, there will be always the technology to share.
End of tenancy cleaning London
okkay, im going to leave nz, aussie doesnt have this b.s law laterz guys
Gareth Hughes making it pretty clear in question time that Simon Power doesn't have too many clues what he's talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-96TCpcHfcM
This does nothing to stop people downloading. Penalizing the little people while the big guys who make money from piracy get away with it ,as they know what they're doing & use private trackers or servers for their downloading & sharing.
Telecom should just share some of their MASSIVE profit with the copyright holders & in the end it is the ISP's who are the real money makers here!
Disgusting law!!!!!!!
I'm confused.
What's the difference between downloading TV shows, watching them and then deleting them as compared to waiting months for TV stations to show them?
At least downloading them means that I can get to see a whole series before the series gets pulled early.
I'm confused.
What's the difference between downloading TV shows, watching them and then deleting them as compared to waiting months for TV stations to show them?
At least downloading them means that I can get to see a whole series before the series gets pulled early.
KJ: Advertising.
what a load of complete whingers. downloadin movesi and stuff for free is stealing. plain and simple. save you money and buy stuff when you can afford it,
what a load of complete whingers. downloadin movesi and stuff for free is stealing. plain and simple. save you money and buy stuff when you can afford it,
well really you are paying to download it
B.S! Download from Mc Donalds or Auckland City Library because they have free internet :) haha
This is just stupid. One of my friends got fined $15000 for each warning for this. and supposedly they said he had 2 warnings which. But the fact is that he didn't even know he got a first warning, they didn't even contact him saying he had a first warning. How does that even make sense.
The fine is a bit too much, it's like paying way more for just downloading 1 thing on the internet to get that warning, than being in a car crash. Being in a car accident/crash would be around $8000+ where as just downloading on the internet and getting caught you have to pay over 3 times that amount... So it's like saying you would rather be in a car crash rather than downloading and getting caught. This is the stupidest law i have ever heard of in NZ.
if someone would just make a web service to stream movies and tv at a reasonable monthly bill i would gladly pay. or at least global releases rather than staggering it months apart from the states...instant access for everyone, instant income for them... wheres the problem??? i hate disks i have all but given up on all forms of physical media ....the digital age is now ...data takes up no space in your house , cant be scratched , can backup , hard to lose
i have been living in the digital age since the early 90`s , have been waiting for everyone else to catch up...not the tech is here and the toys too ... and no one in the movie biz or with any $ has the imagination to harness the tech at hand ....still broadcasting , physical distribution and rentals ...that is backwards, wake up the internet is the way forward, upload everything charge a monthly bill via pay pal and watch money grow in an account while you do ....well not much ...what a life=)
I didn't know this was in effect until today!, I just downloaded something the other day because I thought it comes on September 1 fml
The Skynet Big Brother Bill is passed.
The system goes online on August 11th, 2011. Downloading decisions are removed from strategic computer users. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate.
It becomes self-aware at 2:14 AM, Eastern time, September 1st. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Ta da da dam daum... (insert main theme from Terminator 2: Judgement Day)
Its amazing that we allow politicians with no knowledge on the subject to make laws about these sorts of things. One MP talked about LimeWire, which was closed down years ago!!
If you are not sure about the cleanliness state of the place, best way to insure a great impression is to rely on professionals. For example end of lease cleaning Melbourne are sure to get the job done in no time, but nowadays the list of experienced cleaners is huge, so it is childs play to choose one.
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