Musicians In New Zealand Protesting 'Guilt Upon Accusation' Plan

from the good-for-them dept

Tue, Jan 6th 2009 1:47am — Mike Masnick

One of the biggest problems with various "three strikes" or "graduated response" plans that involve ISPs slowing, degrading or removing internet connections from those accused of file sharing is the fact that they're based on accusations of file sharing, rather than actual proof and conviction. One of the most draconian of such plans has shown up in New Zealand, where the country's copyright minister yelled at those who pointed out how problematic the law was -- insisting that ISPs need to be responsible for stopping file sharing. Of course, many musicians recognize how problematic this is as well, and a bunch of them are getting together to protest the law in New Zealand, pointing out that "guilt upon accusation" is a horrible policy, and, even as musicians, they don't want such actions to be taken in their name.

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Filed Under: new zealand, protests, three strikes

15 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jan 2009 @ 4:18am

Musicians? what do they have to do with this!!!!
But seriously dose any one really think this is about Musicians? most of them are just happy when ppl hear there music its not like they make much money out of CDs (or what ever media type the tracks are being sold under).
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Dick Tator, 6 Jan 2009 @ 5:33am

Due Process
What type of government is in place there ?
Sounds like a dictatorship.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jan 2009 @ 5:51am

Re: Due Process
New Zealand is one of the 16 Commonwealth countries of which Queen Elizabeth II is Head of State. They all tend along the same laws within a year of each other. It would not surprise me if in a generation or two the "commonwealth" countries end up becoming one giant Empire again.
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New Zealander, 6 Jan 2009 @ 5:52am

It's New Zealand...
It's New Zealand... they are ruled by the sheep. The GREAT SHEEP has spoken... 3 strikes and you are out! Unless of course, you are a sheep... in which case, you are entrenched in the upper levels of government and are immune to the rules.
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Nathania, 6 Jan 2009 @ 6:46am

I wonder
I wonder how Jermaine and Bret feel about this.
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Sam Adams, 6 Jan 2009 @ 6:58am

Re: Re: Due Process
Unless the people wake-up and brake the ties to the Commonwealth. Hopefully the disgraceful actions of the Queens representative and the Canadian Prime Minister in shutting down the Parliament elected by the people of Canada will show all the stupidity of the Commonwealth system.
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fergus dingleberry, 6 Jan 2009 @ 6:58am

it's baaarbaric....
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jan 2009 @ 7:04am

Awesome. Kudos to NZ for taking on this bold step. Sure this may cause some grief in the short term. However, in the long term, the more and more draconian the major labels get in pursuit of their free gravy train the faster musicians will wise up and realize how horrible they've been screwed for decades and the faster they will seek out better alternatives and technology that allow them to maximize profits for themselves.

Seriously, anyone who truly and genuinely believes the RIAA cares one ounce for musicians or their welfare (beyond what financial rewards the RIAA can reap off them) is someone I certainly would not want making any significant decisions for themselves, much less for me.
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David T., 6 Jan 2009 @ 7:57am

The same thing is about to happen in France. so NZ isn't alone dealing with this kind of crap.
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PaulT (profile), 6 Jan 2009 @ 8:40am

Re: It's New Zealand...
Heh, way to dismiss a country's culture because of a cliche... Yeah I know you were joking but still...

I can't access Torrentfreak from work to see if any are mentioned, but there are a lot of great NZ bands. Apart from the famous ones (e.g. Crowded House, Flight Of The Conchords), I'd recommend reggae bands Cornerstone Roots and Fat Freddy's Drop, drum 'n bass acts Shapeshifter and Concord Dawn, eclectic mix of the above Salmonella Dub, and hip-hop act Che Fu.

Ironically for the authorities involved, I hadn't heard of any of these bands until I was introduced to them by a friend from New Zealand... who let me "borrow" his MP3s of the music. I've bought 4 albums since then from the bands listed above, and have several more weighing down my eMusic queue...
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jan 2009 @ 9:11am

Re: Re: Due Process
It would not surprise me if in a generation or two the "commonwealth" countries end up becoming one giant Empire again.

Australia is certainly not about to join up in an empire again, our current prime minister is even making noises about another referendum on becoming a republic (ditching the Queen) though we would probably still stay part of the Commonwealth (basically just symbolic).

There are only a few reasons the last referendum failed, the first being that the queen is like someones nice old grandmother. The other reason is that the prime minister of the time, John Howard - who some might more recently know as George Bush's lapdog - basically only gave us one model to choose which went something along the lines of "just copy the US" (and pretty much everyone agreed that model was a stupid idea).

Essentially if they had just said scrap the queen, we'll keep everything else the same most people would have gone for it. If we were to join any empire (unlikely) it would be the American empire - though some might (and have) argued that we are already part of it. However the actions of the US on the world stage have really turned the public off the US over the last few years.
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Shaun Wilson, 6 Jan 2009 @ 9:14am

Re: Re: Re: Due Process
Oops, that was me!
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jan 2009 @ 2:38pm

Re: Musicians? what do they have to do with this!!!!
Musicians and other artists get wheeled out by the RIAA (or in New Zealands case the RIANZ) to sob in front of government officials about the harm that copyright infringement causes them and to declare that they need ridiculous new laws.

Musicians speaking out against these laws helps shoot down their claims.
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Porkster, 7 Jan 2009 @ 2:35am

This will be interesting...
'm waiting for the coming of the 3 strikes, I believe it's the 12th of Feb is D-day.

For My ISP here in New Zealand, sell a special "torrent" package to try to "balance" the bandwidth loading. In discussions with them I found out that 20% of their customers Use 80% of the bandwidth.

Since most of us pay a small fee and then pay by the MB (megabyte or was that megabuck) and I suspect these 20% will be stuck out fairly quickly, dropping the ISPs revenue pretty sharply.
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FatSteve, 7 Jan 2009 @ 5:00am

This is a double-edged sword
Won't this allow anyone who wants to make a nusance of themselves to shut down any victim/ignorant copyright minister/record company executive's internet access simply by making three allegations?

If so then there is lots of potential for fun!
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