New Zealand Gov't Refuses To Remove 'Guilt Upon Accusation' Clause In Copyright Act

from the bad-law dept

Fri, Jan 30th 2009 5:33am — Mike Masnick

Recently, New Zealand passed a copyright law similar to ones being pushed elsewhere by the entertainment industry, that would require accused file sharers to be cut off from their internet connection, based on the accusation alone. This seems to go against any concept of due process, and even musicians (who this law was supposed to help) came out against it loudly. Unfortunately, the politicians who put the law in place clearly had their minds already made up, and are refusing to change the law, which will go into effect in just a few weeks. Apparently, they want to see how it works in action, before making a decision on whether to change it -- which I'm sure will be quite comforting to those who lose their internet access without any proof or conviction of unauthorized file sharing.

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Filed Under: new zealand, protests, three strikes

18 Comments

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Ima Fish, 30 Jan 2009 @ 5:53am

There is a really easy solution to this. Because there is nothing under the law which punishes false accusations, simply accuse those politicians who voted for the law for violating your copyrights and have them get kicked off their internet connections.
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STJ, 30 Jan 2009 @ 6:00am

Or those with the $$$ behind it
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Steve (profile), 30 Jan 2009 @ 6:00am

Actually, it's worse
This isn't the same party - there was an election, and this is actually NZ's equivalent of the republicans refusing to repeal a democrat law (I should point out that NZ republicans make US democrats look like right wing extremists).
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2009 @ 6:09am

I refuse to give a shiet!
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2009 @ 6:11am
  
  Re:
  about the New Zealand Gov't that is
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Jack Sombra, 30 Jan 2009 @ 6:54am

Sadly reporting all your local politicians for illegal fileshareing, plus your local government offices is probably best way to get this law kicked out. Only real work you will have to do it find their isp/ip which should not be very hard
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2009 @ 7:25am

Report the Recording Industry of New Zealand.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2009 @ 7:32am

dont go after the politicians... accuse their kids, kids' friends, nephews and nieces, neighbors, their kids' educators, house cleaners, drivers, etc... dont go after them because they have the influence to get the service back on... go after the people around that; the people they have to deal with on a daily basis
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- Nathan, 30 Jan 2009 @ 8:29am
  
  Re:
  You are a gentleman, a scholar, and a sadistic bastard.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2009 @ 9:24am
    
    Re: Re:
    And there's not a thing wrong with that at all!
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trollificus, 30 Jan 2009 @ 7:39am

+2, insightful
previous AC makes a good point. The only "pressure" that's going to count is not political or media-related, it's going to be when some (or a lot of the) politicians' nephew comes screaming at him thusly:

UNCLE JACK!!! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A MAJOR 20-MAN DUNGEON RAID FOR MAJOR LEWTZ!!!! WHAT THE FUCK????

Said politician can either reconsider the wisdom of this guilty-on-accusation crap or call the ISP with a hearty "Do you know who I AM?"

Ah, shit.
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Chris, 30 Jan 2009 @ 8:10am

HAHA
Would be friggin hilarious to see what happens when someone starts reporting all of them for pirating and they lose their internet.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2009 @ 10:48am

Why just their friends and family
Report EVERYONE in NZ for file sharing and see what happens
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porkster, 1 Feb 2009 @ 11:46am

Why stop at politicians?
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- porkster again, 1 Feb 2009 @ 11:50am
  
  Re: Why stop at politicians?
  Woops sorry, darn computers.
  
  Why stop at dobbing in politicians, what about judges, police, schools, IRD, CYPs, train controllers, airport security, the list is endless - I'm sure that would bring the whole country to a grinding halt.
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Slackr, 2 Feb 2009 @ 4:44pm

As a NZer who has followed this website and also this stupid law I can say that I am distressed by the situation, heartened by the clear disenting voices with well articulated arguments, and gob-smacked at the Governments stuborness to listen to the experts in the area talk about their expertise. One of the best parts about this law is that there has been ZERO education of the implications for the public, charities or commercial businesses.

While some of you may want to ignore this as 'little old NZ', we are a testing ground for half of this stuff. Rest assured if it works at all in our country it will be coming to yours as the poster child as to how it 'can' work.

Personally I simply could not think of anything more satisfying than having some of the aforementioned *ohh shit** scenarios play out with so many connected to the internet suddenly left high and dry.

AC in post #8 that idea is pure evil genius.
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ezzeldien ishag adam, 10 Feb 2009 @ 10:56pm

looking for job
iam sudanese civil engineer working in saudia arabia
and iam 36 years old
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 22 Feb 2009 @ 9:19pm

They've Changed Their Mind!
The government is putting Section 92A on hold. It's giving "the sector" another month to come up with their promised "code of practice"; if they don't, then the section will be suspended altogether.
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