Big Music: Jump! New Zealand ISP: How high?
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- New Zealand was the first country in the world to unequivocally become a Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music copyright enforcement organisation, compelling ISPs to an effect rat out their own customers with a three-strikes-and-you’re-gone policy.
But some ISPs appear to have already started work.
Section 92A, a new provision in the New Zealand Copyright Act which went into effect on February 28, says if a copyright owner claims someone is guilty of repeatedly infringing copyrights, the ISP involved will be forced to terminate the account.
Behind the bill is Judith Tizard (right), a member of the recently ousted Labour Party.
“Big telcos such as Telecom, Vodafone – and especially TelstraClear – are shuddering at new rules forcing them to clamp down on illegal downloads of movies, TV shows and music from their networks,” says the New Zealand Herald.
“But while telcos and copyright owners are still negotiating a Code of Practice for handling Section 92a of the Copyright Act – which forces internet service providers to act on allegations from copyright owners and shut down accounts – some ISPs are already doing it.”
Surely not? But it’s actually happening.
“Paul Clarkin of WorldXChange, which has 20,000 customers, says the company is using a system in some ways more draconian than Section 92a. The code may make the new rule easier to administer,” the story says, going on:
“We took the commercial risk of terminating customers but there is nothing to stop those customers taking a swing at us. 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’.”
Nor, according to the NZ Herald, is this a recent occurrence.
“A broadband customer of WorldXChange’s Xnet said his internet connection was shut down last year and he had no idea why,” it says, quoting the user as saying:
“I phoned them up and the technician told me they had received notification of someone from my ISP downloading material that infringed copyright.
“They said that they’d reinstate my internet, but that if they got one more it would be cut off permanently – two strikes, you are out.”
The Xnet customer says he stuck with the ISP and hasn’t been accused of another breach.
Clarkin says it’s three strikes before customers are switched off.
TelstraClear has already said it has no intention of implementing the policy on behalf of the corporate music industry and, “will also be concerned that the Hollywood entertainment industry’s success in getting the law introduced here will be repeated in Australia and cost parent company Telstra millions of dollars,” the story declares.
Stay tuned.
first country – ISP Witch Hunts in New Zealand, February 17, 2009
rat out their own customers – Google chips into NZ copyright fray, March 16, 2009
New Zealand Herald – ISPs throwing pirates overboard, March 13, 2009
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