New Zealand ready to reintroduce "three strikes" copyright rule

Uh-oh: New Zealand is ready to reintroduce the “three-strikes” rule that says that everyone in your household will be denied Internet access (and all that goes with it, from education to civic engagement to health information) if one person is accused of infringing on copyright:

Due to New Zealand’s geographical isolation the internet is a vital tool for connecting to the rest of the world, and is also becoming more pervasive with vital services moving online such as parts of government, health care (records, scheduling) and social interaction tools (newspapers, phone, email, social networks). Disconnection may hinder people’s ability to pay bills, operate their business or do their job, access banking, education, insurance, etc. Due to this the internet is already a necessary service like other utilities such as the phone and postal systems. With internet use showing no signs of slowing, in future years disconnection will be seen as a shortsighted and increasingly unfair penalty.

For artists, fines have the potential to include compensation for copyright infringement, whereas broad and indirect punishments that harm innocent people will simply reflect badly on artists.

It’s likely that there will be significant business compliance costs with termination. ISPANZ have estimate that 90% of NZ Businesses use network devices that are currently incapable of tracking and we see no coverage of this in the draft (although it’s unsure whether we would expect at this early stage).

Terminator 2: MED release Section 92A Proposal.

(via Michael Geist)