Controversial New Zealand Internet copyright law delayed
A highly controversial new law in New Zealand has been delayed from coming into effect by the country’s prime minister. The month delay is intended to allow for a voluntary code of practice to be worked out. Although this is a good start, the law will ideally be scrapped altogether.
Lawmakers last year saw fit to make several changes to New Zealand’s 1984 Copyright Act. These changes were made to reflect the way in which technology and the sharing culture has evolved since the mid 1980s.
The most controversial change has been the addition of section 92A, which calls for ISPs to terminate the accounts of customers found to be repeatedly infringing copyright laws via the Internet. Basically, if a person is accused of accessing file-sharing Web sites, they could have their Internet connection severed.
Section 92A has caused consternation all over the Internet, with people from all over the world, and from every walk of life, seeing it as the start of an unacceptable Internet police force. The main argument against the law is that only an accusation is required, rather than a conviction or any proof of wrongdoing. Innocent until proved guilty would basically be taken out of the agenda.
There has been a very successful endeavor to fight against this change to the law. If you’ve noticed any blacked out avatars on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, that’s the reason. There is also a petition running, and various high-profile New Zealand-based blogs were blacked out today, with the site redirecting to the online petition.
According to The New Zealand Herald, Prime Minister John Key has heeded these protestations, delaying implementation of the new law from February 28 until March 27. In that month, a solution which is acceptable to both sides will supposedly be worked out, with a third-party to judge disputes one of the key tenets.
I still think the bill we be brought in, but this move does show the power of protest. Governments which reject or ignore people’s opinions on matters such as this, risk losing power by losing the respect of the voters who put them there in the first place. Let us hope that common sense now prevails.
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