I've seen some discussion on the proposed (soon to be law) 'Section 92' of the Copyright Amendment Act, but now it's time to take action.

As you may already know, if the act comes into law, and you are accused by a 3rd party (via your ISP) of copyright infringement 3 times, your ISP will be required by law to disconnect you from their services and cancel your account... permanently.

I'm not here to debate the moral, legal or ethical implications of copyright infringement, but what I am deeply concerned about is the fact that the act provides the means for a corporate entity to affect your personal life by simply accusing you of illegally copying their products.  This can be done with NO proof, NO legal process, NO appeal and NO accountability on the part of the accuser.  You are GUILTY!... because they say so!

So even if you didn't knowingly violate copyright, or there was a technical malfunction or mis-configuration which caused the copyright violation to occur, you have no recourse.  GUILTY.  End of story.

Last time I checked, New Zealand was still a democracy.  In a democracy there are well defined legal processes, courts of law,
juries, judges & above all you are presumed INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty!! 

So enough of the introduction.  Time for action.

There is a well organised group of New Zealand artists are strongly against this proposed law.  (It really tells you something when even the artists this law is meant to 'protect' oppose it!)  They have started an organisation called the 'Creative Freedom Foundation' and their website can be found here.  The website has suggestions on what each of us can do to stop this amendment from becoming law, including an online petition.

If you don't want New Zealand law to be controlled by corporate entities, don't want to be deemed guilty without proof or legal recourse and if you value the freedom that we enjoy in the democracy of New Zealand, then please take a couple of minutes out of your day to do something about it!

Thanks,


Sam.


Moderators:  I know we've just got this new 'ICT Policies and Regulation' forum for this kind of thing, but I believe that this issue is highly relevant for all members of Geekzone.  Would it be possible to get this information posted on some of the more popular and well read forums (eg; the 'Broadband' forum)?