One major New Zealand internet service provider already processes copyright infringement notices, despite the lack of any law requiring them to, a parliamentary select committee was told today.Telecom's government and industry relations general manager Ra
One major New Zealand internet service provider already processes copyright infringement notices, despite the lack of any law requiring them to, a parliamentary select committee was told today.
Telecom's government and industry relations general manager Ralph Chivers revealed Telecom already receives infringement notices from overseas entities, and forwards complaints to their customers where possible.
Mr Chivers, making a submission on the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill, said there was already a high volume of complaints sent to Telecom, with many of them coming from sources they could not identify.
One evening last week the company received 500 notices from two US-based entities they were unfamiliar with, he said.
Telecom had a team for managing abuse, and where they could identify an offender's IP address they forwarded the message on to them.
It took about 20 minutes to process each complaint, and sometimes the alleged offender could not be identified, he said.
All of this happened despite the law not requiring any action on Telecom's part.
Telecom was concerned about the possibly high volumes of "weak" allegations from faceless entities whose credentials the company could not verify, Mr Chivers said.
To combat this problem, Telecom proposed a system where copyright holders would have their credentials vetted and would therefore gain access to a relatively smooth and straightforward process.
"We would expect that process would reduce the impact of spurious notices," Mr Chivers said.
Commerce select committee chairwoman Lianne Dalziel said there was also a concern that "copyright trolls" would spend their whole life collecting spurious actions against individuals.
The bill is designed to put in place a three-notice regime to deter illegal file sharing, and would extend the jurisdiction of the Copyright Tribunal, enabling it to hear complaints and award penalties of up to $15,000.
The committee is due to report back on the bill by October.
