Around the same time there was an election in New Zealand and a major change in government, with the then-ruling Labour Party losing out to the National Party. One of those losers was the bill’s champion, Judith Tizard.

With a change of government comes a change in views, and late last month New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced that the law would be delayed until a workable solution is found.

For many thousands of Kiwi’s, however, disconnection upon accusation is already a reality. One ISP, WorldXChange, has already implemented a Secton92-esque policy for its customer base; one it claims might actually be more draconian.

According to the New Zealand Herald, WorldXChange, which has approximately 20,000 customers, has already initiated their own version of ’3 strikes and you’re out”. The Herald spoke with a WorldXChange customer who said their connection was terminated last year after an allegation of copyright infringement was made to Xnet (WorldXChange’s broadband service). After contacting customer services, they learned that their connection had been terminated because the ISP had received an allegation that the customer’s IP was linked to file-sharing that infringed copyright.

“They said that they’d reinstate my Internet, but that if they got one more [accusation] it would be cut off permanently – two strikes, you are out.”

A spokesperson for WorldXChange confirmed that such a policy was in place, but said it was 3 strikes, not 2. However, WorldXChange will not be terminating commercial customers in this manner, only residential ones – undoubtedly because residential customers are less likely to sue WorldXChange than a commercial concern, who could easily have their business turned upside down by an unwarranted disconnection.

It might be a a different story if media-groups (and their enforcement contractors) could be trusted to make accurate, well researched claims when it comes to allegations of infringement, but we all know that is not always the case.

Meanwhile, the debate amongst other NZ ISPs has stalled with the withdrawal of TelstraClear (NZ’s second biggest telecom company) from talks regarding Section92, stating it doesn’t want to harm customers. The law has generated intense debate all over New Zealand and now has an uncertain future. If the law is repealed, or struck down though, it is entirely possible that Xnet’s policy will stay in effect, at least until the sound of customers flocking to their competitors – voluntarily or after being ‘terminated’ – gets too much to bear.

On a lighter note though, WorldXChange does seem to have mastered irony. WorldXChange states on the ‘about us‘ section of their website “To us, the key stakeholders are our customers”. Meanwhile Xnet has a package aimed squarely at bandwidth-hungry BitTorrent users.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Earlier this month a code of practice was drafted by the copyright holders and ISPs which should outline the manner in which the new Section 92 ’3 Strikes’ regime should be handled by the ISPs. However, the parties involved couldn’t agree on the content of the code and Prime Minister John Key has just announced that the law has been delayed until a workable solution can be found. If the parties involved can’t reach an agreement, the law might be changed, he noted.

Most of the opposition is worried about the “Guilty Upon Accusation’ part of the law, and rightly so. Regular readers know how shoddy anti-piracy groups are at accurate take-down notices, either they’re for stuff that you can share, never had, or are incapable of having.

Last week, many people blacked out their profile images on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and today several bloggers announced a blackout of their entire website. The protest is being spearheaded by Creative Freedom, which was formed two months ago in response to this law – and not without success.

The protest caught the eye of many, including some celebrities. Stephen Fry, author of 7 novels, and a prolific screenwriter, actor, and presenter, is supporting the cause. “My picture is blacked out for good reason,” he twittered last week. The Quite Interesting Fry, ranked second most popular by twitterholic, was one of the first to black out his profile picture.

For now the protests have resulted in a delay of the law, perhaps not directly, but we are pretty certain that it would have been in effect already without all the opposition.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

While New Zealand’s version of the RIAA, RIANZ, is very happy at the introduction of this scheme, many others are not. Objections from the public have been backed up groups such as The Creative Freedom Foundation, with Co-Founder and Director Bronwyn Holloway-Smith slamming the new section as summary action “without evidence or even a trial.”

Many organizations have been vocal in their opposition, and it had been hoped that the combined pressure of all dissenters could be brought to bear on the government, in an attempt to force them to reconsider implementing the law. Unfortunately, according to a Stuff report, that has failed.

Although the government’s Communications and Information Technology Minister Steven Joyce acknowledged there had been concerns over the legislation, the best he could offer was to look at how the law operates after its introduction.

Jamie Baddeley, the president of ISPANZ, New Zealand’s industry group representing ISPs said, “If Section 92A is allowed to come in, ISPs will have to disconnect organizations such as businesses, public libraries, government agencies etc as a result of accusations that an employee has used their computers for illegal downloading.”

While ISPANZ says the legislation makes New Zealand “a guinea pig for experimental cyberlaw,” their members are equally critical.

Alison Sykora, Vodafone spokeswoman said: “We believe the Government needs to re-examine this as it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to enforce.” Mathew Bolland for TelstraClear defined the legislation as “appalling” while noting that although the company will have to follow the law, they “won’t be hammering” their customers.

In November last year, TorrentFreak asked Associate Minister of Commerce Judith Tizard about the rationale behind the law, while pointing out the concerns over reliability of accusatory evidence. She declined to comment, stating she was unable to spare the time to respond, due to defending her seat.

Yesterday we posed probing questions directly to Communications and IT Minister Steven Joyce, but by the time of publication we have received no response.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.