Proposed internet copyright penalties 'extreme'

Cutting off internet connections for illegal downloads is akin to cutting off power or phone access, the Commerce Select Committee was told this week.

The committee sat this morning to hear further submissions on the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill, designed to curb illegal music and video downloads and replace the controversial section 92A of the Copyright Act.

The proposed legislation will require internet service providers to suspend the account of repeat offenders for six months, if requested, and will allow copyright holders to apply for up to $15,000 compensation after three notices have been served.

Colin Jackson, an independent technology consultant and co-founder of Internet NZ, and the Creative Freedom Foundation, a lobby group for New Zealand artists, felt that the proposed penalties were too extreme.

CFF co-founder Bronwyn Holloway-Smith described internet suspension as “comparable to cutting off someone’s electricity, phone or postal system”.

She and Mr Jackson suggested that the internet suspension provision be scrapped and the financial penalty pegged to the legal internet purchase price of the item.

This would double as an incentive for content companies to release more material for legal download, and more quickly.

Mr Jackson went as far as to oppose the bill on principle. “Technology is moving on, ready or not,” he said, and content industries need to adapt accordingly.

But Copyright Council of NZ representative Anthony Healey said alternative business models would not develop in New Zealand until illegal file sharing is curbed.

He supported the internet suspension provision as a penalty for serious offenders.

Although offenders could relatively easily change their internet service providers to evade the suspension, it would be “intrusive to their existence” and still act as a deterrent.

The Telecommunications' Carriers Forum recommended that the penalty system cease at the first (and educational) notice.

"Surveys and experiences in Canada and other countries indicate that around
70% of account holders would cease infringing on receipt of a notice alone,
without any sanction being threatened," the submission read.

"If that approach was adopted and studies then showed that New Zealand’s rate
of copyright infringement was not decreasing, the remainder of the Bill could be
introduced."