New Zealand kills 3-strikes plan
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- “Steaders: RT @denniswright: controversial #s92a law in #nz is scrapped! http://tinyurl.com/cqbdnh
“cffnz: The CFF story on todays announcement http://tinyurl.com/c677y5
“denniswright: controversial #s92a law in #nz is scrapped! http://tinyurl.com/cqbdnh (expand)
“kfeine: ‘Section 92A will be scrapped’. Alors est-ce que l’Hadopi va suivre ??
And, simply, “GoodDaySunshine: #s92a scrapped!”
All five Twitter posts refer to the fact public opinion, much ( if not most) of it online, has forced the New Zealand government to accept the reality its people, and not Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, come first.
We read the news today, O Boy! The NZ government has scrapped the plan, as GoodDaySunshine, et al, point out, referring to section 92A of the ludicrous three strikes and you’re out scheme under which ISPs would have been forced act as copyright enforcers against their own customers.
The corporate music industry came up with the idea, and Judith Tizard (right), a member of the recently ousted Labour Party, sponsored it on behalf of the Big 4.
Says the New Zealand National Business Review »»»
Prime Minister John Key has announced the government will throw out the controversial Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment (New Technologies) Act and start again.
Commerce and justice minister Simon Power will now meet with officials and rewrite Section 92A (S92) of the Act from the ground up.
“Section 92a is not going to come into force as originally written. We have now asked the minister of commerce to start work on a replacement section,” the prime minister said.
No timeframe has been set for ammending S92.
Said Alan McCright in Curmudgeon At Large, the new law, “allows the American and New Zealand film and music industries to pressure Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to terminate any individual or business users solely on their say so.”
He went on »»»
If an ISP resists, they may be sued for not complying with the new law – as has happened in Australia.
Under a new provision in the New Zealand Copyright Act (Section 92A), which comes into force on 28 February, internet users’ accounts can be terminated as a result of unproven accusations of piracy. Section 92A states that if a copyright owner thinks that an internet user is guilty of repeatedly breaching copyright, then the user’s ISP will be forced the terminate their internet connections and websites.
In an internet version of the Salem Witch Hunts, the concept of “innocent until proven guilty” will be thrown out the window. Termination of Internet access will occur without any evidence, without a fair trial, without any right of appeal, and with no punishment for anyone making erroneous or malicious accusations of copyright infringement.
TelstraClear said it wouldn’t support the code, but at least one smaller ISP now has some serious explaining to do.
While telcos and copyright owners were negotiating a ‘Code of Practice’ for handling 92a, Paul Clarkin of WorldXChange, with some 20,000 customers, had already put the section into action.
“We took the commercial risk of terminating customers but there is nothing to stop those customers taking a swing at us,” the New Zealand Herald has him saying, going on, “But most of my customers are residential – you just would not do it to a commercial player.”
“Clarkin said that big copyright-owning companies such as Sony BMG closely monitor sites used to pirate music. ‘They give you an IP address that comes to us – we search with that address and date’.”"
Stay tuned on whether or not Clarkin goes out of business.
Meanwhile, although New Zealand was the first country to formally announce it would implement the plan, France has been touting almost identical legislation for some considerable time.
Now, as kfeine wonders, will it be next?
Stay tuned in that too.
National Business Review – Section 92A to be scrapped, March 23, 2009
New Zealand Herald – ISPs throwing pirates overboard, March 13, 2009
almost identical legislation - Still a chance to defeat French 3 strikes law, March 18, 2009
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March 23rd, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Poor Tizard, swallowed the crap by the RIAA’s branch in NZ without having a clue about the stuff herself… almost feel sorry for her BUT
serves her right, she’ll think 10 times the next time those parasites approach her, as will any other official who hears about how RIANZ tried to use her and the backlash it got them/her.
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Congratulations New Zealanders!
Your protests forced parliament to acknowledge your rights. This time. I don’t know that your battle is truly over.
See my take on this at:
Draconian Internet Copyright Law Dead, Or Is It?
http://amccright.blogspot.com/2009/03/draconian-internet-copyright-law-dead.html
Write your MPs and keep them on their toes.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/HvYrSay/Contact/2/9/d/00PlibHvYrSayContact1-Contact-an-MP.htm