Download law back on agenda

There is no doubting that many people in New Zealand illegally download movies, music, computer games and other software every day.

The film and recording industry regularly bandy around massive amounts that they claim illegal downloading is costing their industries. While the exact figures may be debatable there is no doubt that this activity is costing the companies and artists who produce these items a lot of money.

It's important to note that downloading of copyright material is theft and cannot be defended, but the money and lobbying power of the music and movie industries has dragged politicians all around the world into the murky world of defending the profits of these established industries against the tide of changing technology.

New Zealand tried to do its bit last year with section 92A of the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act was due to come into effect in February this year.

This legislation required internet service providers (ISPs) to police the illegal downloading of music, movies and other copyrighted material. Under the new law they were required to disconnect repeat offenders from the internet.

Massive opposition to the law and the fact that telecommunication companies and the recording industry could not agree on how they would apportion the costs of policing an enforcement regime saw the law canned.

InternetNZ executive director Keith Davidson at the time said the scrapping of section 92A would be a relief to those who have valiantly opposed the law change.

He said terminating an internet account was a disproportionate response to copyright infringement and to force ISPs and other organisations to be copyright judges and policemen was not an acceptable situation.

Now the issue is back on the agenda. Commerce Minister Simon Power this week released a revised proposal to amend section 92a of the Copyright Act. The only problem with the new plan is that despite introducing a three-phase process to stop copyright infringement, it still ends up with repeat offenders potentially having their internet connection cut off.

As with the previous incarnation of this law there will be a huge number of issues in managing this, including cost (which will ultimately be met by consumers) and identifying the actual downloader.

There's also the reality that endless attempts to halt downloading, such as digital rights management systems (DRM or copyright protection) have foundered on technical grounds or are bypassed as quickly as they are rolled out.

Theft of copyrighted material is undoubtedly a problem. Ill-conceived legislation is not the answer. Submissions on the proposed amendment to section 92a close on August 7.

Hopefully by then someone will have come up with a solution that is workable.

- The Marlborough Express