Call for $100 fine for CD, DVD piracy

A fine of $100 should be imposed on internet users every time they illegally download a CD or DVD, an artists' lobby group says.

Creative Freedom Foundation director Bronwyn Holloway-Smith said the fines should be capped at $1000 a month and aimed at individuals rather than businesses, libraries and internet cafes where many users shared a connection to ensure the wrong people were not punished.

The foundation, which lobbies on copyright for artists, musicians and film-makers, suggested the fines in a submission on the Government's proposal to redraft section 92a of the Copyright Act. The original section would have forced internet service providers to end accounts of copyright infringers "in reasonable circumstances", but was scrapped in response to protests led by the foundation that people could be cut off without proof of guilt.

As an alternative, the Government has suggested piracy cases could be heard by arbitrators or the Copyright Tribunal, which could impose fines or disconnections.

Ms Holloway-Smith said fines would deter most individuals from downloading pirated material and larger-scale infringements could be dealt with in the courts.

The fine of $100 about three times the cost of a DVD or CD was just a suggestion but the foundation felt it was a fair amount. "We're trying to avoid the situation that happened in the United States, where one person was charged US$3 million for distributing 24 songs."

Terminating infringers' accounts would be a "disproportionate punishment" because the internet was a vital tool for connecting with the rest of the world, and innocent users of the connection would be unfairly penalised, Ms Holloway-Smith said.

Federation Against Copyright Theft executive director Tony Eaton said fines would be appropriate in some situations but were not a severe enough punishment for more serious cases. The federation represents the interests of US movie studios and is a branch of the US Motion Picture Association.

"In some raids we've assisted the police with we've located hundreds of thousands of [pirated] DVDs and movie titles on hard drives available for sale. For that level of offending we don't believe a fine would suffice. Termination has to be the ultimate sanction."

Mr Eaton said the federation's submission to the Government argued for a more streamlined process for hearing copyright cases and suggested copyright owners could present evidence about infringements in bulk to an adjudicator, who could order disconnections.

This would avoid the situation where an arbitrator or the Copyright Tribunal had to wade through 1000 infringement notices, he said.

InternetNZ has suggested "a notice and notice" system to reduce internet piracy. Termination was an inappropriate and disproportionate remedy that would not work, it said.

The Telecommunications Carriers Forum said it supported the involvement of an "expert independent adjudicator such as the Copyright Tribunal". But the proposal meant ISPs which would be required to send infringement and cease and desist notices to customers would still face considerable costs and these should be compensated.

The Economic Development Ministry, which is leading the legislation redrafting, plans to seek the Cabinet's approval of the new section by the middle of next month and introduce a bill in November.

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