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The telecommunications industry, Internet service providers, user groups, Internet advocates and IT professionals have called the recently passed Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act “A deeply flawed law that undermines fundamental rights and simply will not work.” The major concern is with section 92a of the act which states:
An Internet service provider must adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for termination, in appropriate circumstances, of the account with that Internet service provider of a repeat infringer.
New Zealand Computer Society Chief Executive Paul Matthews said in a media release:
You could use the same flawed justification that underpins this law to force The Warehouse to ban someone from shopping there for their food and clothes just because they are accused of copying a few DVDs that they have bought. Yes, copyright infringement is wrong, but it needs to be proven first and the penalty kept in proportion. Termination of all internet access in this day and age of online education, social networking and electronic services is a huge penalty. This is simply bad law whichever way you look at it.
CEO of the Telecommunications Users Association (TUANZ) said that Parliament placing the burden of sorting out their users' copyright infringement issues on ISP's is unacceptable.
It’s not their job to interpret and enforce vague laws, particularly when they interfere with their customers’ rights. Worse still, the definition of ISP in the Act captures schools, universities, and libraries – in fact just about anyone who provides internet access to someone else. The loose language Parliament has included in the legislation will require an army of lawyers to interpret, at the expense of ISPs and ultimately, their customers.
This is not the first time the act has come under criticism, it has been compared to similar legislation in the USA that has resulted in average consumers being targeted rather than media 'pirates'.
