As New Zealand mulls its options for dealing with alleged pirates under its proposed Section 92A legislation, FACT, a division of the MPAA, says it’s not happy with the current proposals of giving those wrongly accused a chance to go to arbitration since it would be too time consuming.
After the previous Labour government failed in its attempts to set up an ISP code of practice to deal with copyright infringements via section 92a of the Copyright Act, today sees new proposals revealed. ISPs won’t be expected to police their networks, but instead decisions – including 3 strikes – will be made by the Copyright Tribunal.
Following a mountain of bad publicity and strong objections from just about everyone except the entertainment industries, New Zealand’s proposed ‘guilty upon accusation’ Section 92A anti-piracy law has been scrapped.
The controversial ‘Section 92a’ law is looking increasingly uncertain in New Zealand. Following a breakdown in talks it’s been revealed that one ISP has already implemented a version of it, and may have already threatened innocent customers after allegations from copyright holders.
The proposed anti-filesharing legislation in New Zealand has got more than its fair share of press recently but unfortunately for the music industry, most of it has been bad. However, the head of New Zealand’s answer to the RIAA says everyone has it wrong, insisting Section 92A is a “reasonable” response.
There has been plenty of comment around the net about the ‘guilty-on-accusation’ law in New Zealand. Now after a week of online protests that got some ‘Quite Interesting’ support, the law has been delayed for another month.
The Telecommunications Carriers Forum (TCF) which represents ISPs and telecoms companies in New Zealand has drafted a code of practice which outlines the manner in which the new Section 92 “3 Strikes” regime should be handled by its members. It aims to dampen the many fears of Internet users.
Despite calls from the public, pressure groups and ISPs, the New Zealand government has refused to withdraw the planned Section 92 of the Copyright Amendment Act. The controversial act provides ‘Guilt Upon Accusation’, meaning that those simply accused of file-sharing are disconnected from the Internet.
New Zealand is known for sheep, rugby, and dramatic filming locations. However, it will also be known for being the first place in the world with a 3-strikes law for copyright infringement. The Copyright Amendment Act 2008 gained royal assent earlier this year, and goes into effect at the end of February 2009. Opposition to this bill, despite being signed into law, is still growing though.
