Despite New Zealand’s so-called ‘Skynet’ anti-piracy law having been effect for two months, up until two days ago not a single copyright infringement notice had been sent out.
The ISPs expected a flood of notices and some even took on extra staff to process them, only to have to lay them off when the deluge never arrived.
Then, as if by magic, just a couple of days after everyone started asking in earnest what on earth is going on, the notices began to flow. Well, trickle at least.
As of yesterday around 75 infringement notices had been sent to Kiwi Internet service providers following detection by RIANZ, the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand.
ISP Telecom New Zealand confirmed they had received 42 infringement notices, 35 relating to unauthorized Rihanna downloads, six for Lady Gaga tracks and one for Taio Cruz. So much for the law protecting ‘local artists’.
TelstraClear said they had received 27 notices but wouldn’t reveal further details. Other ISPs including Orcon and Vodafone also said they had received a batch.
Each of the notices will have to be pad for by RIANZ at the rate of NZ$25 per notice, a cost which has led to speculation that the procedure will prove prohibitively expensive for rightsholders.
However, as reported by Stuff, U.S. rightholders have been in talks with ISPs with a view to “establishing a centralized facility that would process copyright infringement notices on behalf internet providers,” which sounds suspiciously like the seeds of a cost-cutting exercise.
