New Zealand will introduce new legislation to Parliament in 2010 seeking to address the illegal downloading and sharing of copyrighted material over the Internet.
Commerce Minister Simon Power indicated that his government favored a three-strike process for infringers, which is outlined in a Cabinet paper (PDF). The new proposal adds in full court hearings and possible fines, replacing a previously proposed measure, which drew criticism, that would have allowed suspected infringers to have their Internet connections terminated without any court oversight.
The new and reworked plan, which usurps the earlier proposed legislation, consists of first allowing rights holders to request that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) give alleged infringers notice to stop their illegal activity. A first notice would warn of infringement and could be followed by up to two more notices.
Following the third notice, the right holder could seek penalties of up to $15,000 at a Copyright Tribunal. If “serious and continued” infringement is continued, rights holders could request a court hearing that might include a six-month Internet account suspension. Those accused can issue counter notices and can also request a hearing.
Powers said that he was, “confident we now have a workable solution.” He added, “A great deal of work has gone into finding a fair, effective, and credible process for the enforcement of copyright against illegal peer-to-peer file-sharers.”
As part of the proposed plan, ISPs will be required to identify an IP address and match it to an account holder, retain subscriber Internet use data for 20 working days and retain data on infringements for a minimum of 12 months.
Comments
Re: New Zealand Reworks Three Strikes Plan
of course they will abuse it urghh what we need is a counter legislation that forces them to create quality products and sell them for what their worth aswell as allowing us to own what we buy (NOT RENT) and sell/trade it if we want to
and to not lie about how good their product is how many games have been absolute SH*t but been lorded as the best thing EVER
OH WOW the graphics are amazing NO ONE makes them this good your gonna love it we spent so much time making this sooooooo awsome we love what we made
and then you play it and and URGHH
... ok that was childish of me sorry ahem
Re: New Zealand Reworks Three Strikes Plan
And now we come back to the pirate flame war. The media developers don't owe you shit. Stop acting like they do. If you choose to pay for something, it's your fault if you don't like it and nobody else's. Maybe you should have done some more research. As for trading, if you still have a physical copy of what you traded, that's not trading, that's copying. Copying is illegal, with archival copies being a limited exception.
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You KILL Vampires. You don't DATE them.
Re: New Zealand Reworks Three Strikes Plan
I hadnt slept in awhile when I said that ... still I dont think its so much to ask for them to be actually honest and not just HYPE HYPE HYPE
Re: New Zealand Reworks Three Strikes Plan
This is going to get abused quickly. It may be more fair, but the media companies have too much pull for it to not get abused. Most likely by labeling even the legal use of a torrent client as a strike.
Re: New Zealand Reworks Three Strikes Plan
Not so, because the media company would have to prove illegal activity. Legal use of a torrent isn't illegal.
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You KILL Vampires. You don't DATE them.
Re: New Zealand Reworks Three Strikes Plan
Well this draft is much more fairer then the last one I'll give them that.
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/
Re: New Zealand Reworks Three Strikes Plan
I'm curious to know exactly what magnitude must be commited to recieve a response.
I mean, if it's one of those people downloading hundreds of things, and selling them, yeah, nail them with a strike (figuritively, not a SWAT team strike).
But what about the little things?
I won't lie, i've done it before, downloaded the Silent Hill Homecoming soundtrack (couldn't find it anywhere here in the US to legally buy it, though that is no excuse, and i felt horrible about it).
Would the 12 or so songs make a big enough blip? how about just a single one?
Re: New Zealand Reworks Three Strikes Plan
This is part of the problem, from the point of view of the copyright holders, so much as humming a copyrighted tune whilst vacuuming should earn them money, and if your kids hear and you don't have a performers license, you're probably breaking the law.
It's ironic because I've recently had to download some pretty obscure stuff that I couldn't pick up from shops (Bands like The Electric Love Hogs, the original band of Goldfinger's lead singer), and the truth is, if I hadn't downloaded it, the very people complaining about me downloading it would not have printed a special version just for me, or rather, if they had, they would have charged me a fortune for it. Same as you, I'm not a big fan of heavy downloading, bit it does seem to me that their criteria for 'downloading illegal software' is providing traffic to a Torrent site. If this is the case, what happens when I try to download my Eve client via torrents, for the Freespace 2 SCP via torrents, both of which are 'legal', do I get branded as a criminal purely for being in the same room?
Re: New Zealand Reworks Three Strikes Plan
Scary
Re: New Zealand Reworks Three Strikes Plan
Actually this is far more reasonable than what they originally wanted. They originally wanted to put the internet connection termination in the power of the Copyright holders and the copyright holders alone.
This is a much more fair method. Now copyright holders have to prove infringement in court before internet connections can be cut.
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary