Kiwiblog

Been meaning to blog on this since the changes to the Copyright Act were passed on Tuesday with all but the Greens and the Maori Party against. It would be a very very close call, but if I was a (non whipped) MP I would probably have voted against as the law is so inconsistent. The major points:

• One can now legally format shift music (say from a CD you purchase to an Ipod), but music labels can opt out of allowing this in their sale conditions.
• However you can not format shift other works, such as a movie from a DVD to your laptop or to a Video Ipod.
• It is legal to record a TV programme to watch it later, but you can only legally keep it for as long as is reasonable to have viewed it at a more convenient time.
• ISPs have been given an exemeption for their technical operations, such as caching files, which in theory can breach copyright.
• Content Hosters though have only limited liability for material uploaded by their customers. If they receive a complaint alleging a copyright infringement, the ISP becomes liable unless they delete the material. This means in the case of disputes, the ISP has to act as Judge and Jury or risk being sued, and there is some evidnece from overseas that (for example) the Church of Scientology uses such copyright laws as a way to silence critics.
• A “notice and notice” regime was rejected in favour of the US style “notice and takedown described above. The NaN regime would have meant that if a content hoster receives a complaint, they must pass it onto their customer. If the customer does not respond or agrees to remove the material, then it is taken down. However if the customer disputes they are infringing copyright, then the ISP is not held liable, but merely provides the customer’s details to the complainant so they can negotiate or sort it out in court directly.
• The law enshrines special protection for technological protection devices, even though they can sometimes restrict people from legal actions such as making backup copies, or format shifting. TPMs are hugely unpopular and most of the music industry are dropping them.

Has been lots of comments in various areas. First of all Canadian Professor Michael Geist (a expert and advocate for fair use copyright laws) says the law isn’t great but a lot better than what was planned for Canada. He thinks the parts dealing with circumventing TPMs are pretty good.

Steven Price has an excellent post on the notice and takedown regime, its strengths and weaknesses.  I think the Minister, Judith Tizard, has also indicated they will look in future at stronger fair use provisions, which could help.

Russell Brown blogged on the law also.  InternetNZ (I chaired their working group on this issue) calls it a missed opportunity, which it is.

On the bright side, the MPAA is looking a movie download site in NZ, where people can purchase movies. This is a laudable idea, as it is important that people are given legal avenues to access material. We have had the situation in the past where one could not purchase music legally for your Ipod in NZ, and where popular TV shows are not available here for months and months after they show overseas.  The world is a global market, and making works available globally for legal purchase and download will help reduce illegal downloads.

DC may be facing the pressure in health, but I am very pleased to see he is still makin good calls in the Comms/IT area.

He has not accepted Telecom’s proposed separation plan. The proposed plan was a lot better than the draft plan, but still had aspects which would have left incentives in place which would increase the chance of failure.

InternetNZ, whose submission was to not accept the plan, is relieved and happy:

InternetNZ Executive Director Keith Davidson says it is very good to see Government has recognised the issues, and is committed to ensuring a robust operational separation plan that correctly incents the relevant divisions within Telecom. “Ideally the wholesale manager should have little or no group incentive and InternetNZ is pleased to see that a limit will be put in place.”

The changes needed are not huge, but of great significance potentially.  Telecom today is a very different beast to a few years ago and are generally working well towards a structure where there will be greater competition and investment.  The Minister deserves credit for not rushing the final plan by sacrificing quality for speed.

Spam has been my major activity in the last three days. No, not sending it, but trying to stop it.

Had a meeting with the DMA (who are anti spam unlike some of their overseas counterparts) in Auckland on Friday to discuss ways to reduce spam. On the way to the meeting read in the taxi a NZ Herald story about Christchurch resident Shane Atkinson who boasted of up to 100 million spam e-mails a day. A further story looks into the ingredients of his penis enlargement pills.

Internetnz decided to lodge complaints with various regulatory authorities and I’ve spent most of the weekend looking through enough penile growth websites to last a life-time, as background for the complaints. Also done a few media interviews on the issue.

The full PR from InternetNZ follows. Should be further updates on this issue on Monday.

INTERNETNZ LODGES COMPLAINTS AGAINST SPAMMER
InternetNZ is lodging complaints against Christchurch spammer Shane Atkinson with three different regulatory bodies.

Atkinson has been identified in the media as being responsible for the sending of up to 100 million spam e-mails a day to promote his penis enlargement pills.

InternetNZ Vice-President, David Farrar, said that complaints are being lodged with:
- The Commerce Commission for breach of Section 10 of the Fair Trading Act 1986, relating to misleading conduct in relation to goods.
- The Ministry of Health for breach of the Medicines Act 1981
- The Privacy Commissioner for breach of the Privacy Act 1993

“Mr Atkinson is an unrepentant spammer who believes that those who don’t want to receive spam should not connect to the Internet. InternetNZ disagrees that connecting to the Internet is a license for Mr Atkinson to promote his penis
enlargement pills to every man, woman and child’s e-mail address he can find” said Mr Farrar.

InternetNZ has been considering investigating the possibility of advocating for NZ legislation to combat spam.

“If nothing is done to stem the tide of spam, we will start to lose Internet users as they become overloaded with junk mail. It is estimated that just over 50% of all email travelling the Internet is now spam”. said Keith Davidson, InternetNZ President

“If spammers believe there is nothing wrong with spamming, then legislation will become a definitive requirement in New Zealand. Many other countries have passed or intend to pass anti-spam legislation. While New Zealand has been able to rely on industry self regulation and a high degree of co-operation between ISP’s in the fight against spam, it is becoming apparent that further steps towards legislation may be desirable if attitudes like those of Mr Atkinson
exist.” according to Mr Davidson

InternetNZ urges the appropriate regulatory authorities to prosecute Mr Atkinson to the maximum extent permissible under current laws.” concluded InternetNZ Vice-President David Farrar

ENDS