NZ Internet 'Skynet' law comes into effect

By Nicola Grigg

Downloaders beware - from today you can face serious fines for online piracy.

The Government's Copyright Amendment Act comes into force today and anyone caught downloading copyrighted content illegally could face fines of up to $15,000 and have their internet cut off.

Internet New Zealand chief executive Vikram Kumar says the law means the person who pays the bill for the account needs to be very aware of who's using the internet and what they're using it for.

"The account holder needs to know what's going on even if they themselves don't do anything online, and second, everyday internet users really have to understand that peer-to-peer file sharing is now very risky and not worth doing."

Mr Kumar says homes, businesses and schools are all liable for the penalties.

--------------------------------

It's sad that it's just not the US where corporations have taken over the gov't and legal system.


This law was forced through under emergency legislation after the Christchurch earthquake. It was bought and paid for by the RIAA.

It was then rushed through under urgency by the current National government. Urgency is a convention supposed to be restricted to matters of national emergency with the Christchurch Earthquake legislation. The CURRENT government sneaked it through deceptively so it would not be subject to proper debate, public scrutiny and consultation.

----------------------

"John Key is a weak willed smarmy twat who would suck any corporate dick presented to him."


-----------------------


SOLUTION AND PROTIP
  This law only covers torrenting. Word on the tubes is there are other methods. Also, if the user was using a proxy that put their download location out of NZ, then the copyright holder would not be protected by this law.

"as of this very moment they actually have no way of policing this law, they never set up proper ways to monitor it because the ISP'S essentially forgot about it(This is what I have been told from an insider in Telecom.) Its being pushed in the media as scare tactics currently but that is all. They will have proper ways to monitor it in a months time roughly.

Second, the law Is only for torrents.. rapidshare,mediafire,hotfile etc etc are all fine to use.. warez-bb(cough, cough)

There is plenty of work a rounds, just make sure your stupid siblings know and use them.

One other thing, The isp's are only monitoring what they are told to monitor, basically new movies and music releases.

We are a sample nation, good for testing new laws like this because of our varied ethnic diversity, location and standing with larger nations(everyone's bitch)."