p2pnet - rss feed: Only 2 cases in New Zealand
New Zealand is conspicuous by the absence of reports on music industry attacks on p2p file sharers.
Not that the labels aren’t trying.
However, "Only two prosecutions have resulted from [New Zealand] Department of Internal Affairs investigations into more than 100 peer-to-peer users," says Stephen Bell in a Computerworld story here.
These results came from a Computerworld request filed under New Zealand’s Official Information Act (OIA) and the two successful P2P prosecutions were for trading, "not merely possessing, objectionable material".
Computerworld, "asked the department whether the cases had brought any delicate legal argument, since ’supply’ of a file on P2P services is typically automatic on the consumer’s (or inspector’s) clicking on the file icon." says the story.
"Most IRC trades, by contrast, have been the result of an online conversation where the owner of the file is specifically requested to send it and has to take a physical action to do so.
"Department censorship compliance head Keith Manch says that there has been no legal argument to date on P2P files, as both offenders pleaded guilty. Only one of the offences, however, is under the section ‘involving knowledge’, suggesting that the other trader may have been unaware that the image ’supplied’ was illegal."
