Skynet bill's arrival proves a non-event

MIKE O'DONNELL

OPINION: Twenty-nine years ago this month the first Terminator movie came out. An unlikely tale of a cyborg assassin sent back in time to prevent the birth of key figures in the post-apocalyptic world, it was never expected to be a commercial success and certainly no aesthetic achievement.

However, popular opinion has a way of biting reality on the bum. In this case the movie ended up being selected by the US Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry, being deemed aesthetically significant.

The movie also served to kickstart the careers of its director, James Cameron, and its star, one Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the case of Cameron he would go on to direct such blockbusters as Titanic and Avatar. For Schwarzenegger it paved the way for bigger and better cinematic roles, not to mention a California governorship (which saw him nicknamed the "Governator").

The main baddie in all the Terminator movies is Skynet, an artificial intelligence which becomes self-aware and uses its cyber smarts to annihilate and control human beings, largely through the use of robots and a large Austrian with a pump-action shotgun.

The previously largely invisible National Party MP Jonathan Young referenced the Terminator films, and specifically Skynet, earlier this year when he spoke in support of the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill. According to Young, the bill brought "order to the chaos" and would protect people from the Skynet-like internet.

While Young was apparently in favour of the bill, its opponents knew better than to look this unlikely gift-horse in the mouth and immediately nicknamed the basket of changes to filesharing provisions, the Skynet bill, lending it a chilling air and guaranteed airplay. Despite this own-goal, the National-led Government passed the bill, and three weeks ago it became law.

Two key components of the law are the three strikes notification process, and the ability for an offender to be fined up to $15,000 and perhaps even have their internet connection terminated. Once copyright owners have sent notice of alleged infringements to internet service providers (ISPs), the ISP sends up to three infringement notices to the account holder. If they persist in unlawful file-sharing then the Copyright Tribunal can issue fines.

Despite the cacophony of opposition to this law, far from seeing an Armageddon of ISP warnings and internet terminations, the result has been dead boring.

Nothing. Zip.

Not a peep in the way of ISP notices or even a cranky copyright holder worried about the content on some teenager's dodgy MP3 player.

Also noticeable for their silence was the Government. Given the extended gestation period of three years and a false labour when the earlier version of the bill had its section 92a (rightfully) overturned, the truly remarkable thing is that once the bureaucrats had the new law up and running, there was no public information campaign to ensure that New Zealanders understood it.

More surprising still was the hullabaloo of hush emanating from the ISPs. I would have thought a responsible ISP would regard education as the best form of protection, and proactively contact its customers to make them aware of the threat and how to mitigate it. Perhaps they just don't like me, but neither of the ISPs I use have sent me even a sliver of advice about the new law and how to protect myself.

Against this vacuum of information, who did actually get information out to responsible people who want to make sure they do the right thing? I only saw two outfits do this in a user-centric way.

The first was the Internet Safety Group, better known as NetSafe; an independent non-profit organisation that promotes safe and responsible use of the internet and it did a bang-up job of creating and distributing a range of resources designed to stop mums, dads and schools from getting pinged.

The second was Internet New Zealand, also a non-profit organisation, which established 3strikes.net.nz to provide an overview of the new law and practical suggestions around how to manage it (including advice on what to do if you incur a "strike").

The real irony of this turn of events is that the two organisations that didn't support the new file-sharing law (and in the case of Internet NZ actively opposed it) seem to be the only outfits really trying to educate users. The bottom line for account-holders of ISP connections is that you need to be familiar with the changes, but also familiar with what is going on in your network and make your users aware of what the changes mean for everyone.

Meanwhile, the root cause of local illegal downloading remains the diabolical hardship you need to endure in order to legally download files in New Zealand. At the same time as the Skynet law went live, American internet streaming media provider Netflix announced it was extending its service to include the latest Android phones. Netflix has tens of thousands of movie titles and for US$7.99 month you can watch all you like on your internet device, in any content-enabled country.

Needless to say, New Zealand isn't one of them. Now I reckon that's aesthetically significant.

* Mike "MOD" O'Donnell is an eCommerce manager, professional director and author. Disclosure of interest – MOD is a former member of the NetSafe board.

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