NZ ISPs to be pirate police

NZ Herald discussion page

A new law in New Zealand makes ISPs responsible for cutting off copyright pirates. This is all a bit silly.

For a start, define "pirate". A pirate is not the same thing as a thief. A pirate is someone who steals contraband. What is contraband? Goods in transit that have not yet been destination cleared. So, how is a "downloader" a "pirate"?

When a downloader also allows uploads. Then the downloader is effectively trafficking in contraband.

The law should cover that activity, and that activity only when it can be proven to have been done deliberately for stolen profits. That people confine their internet and cultural needs to channels that exist is not their fault. They are naturally curious.

What about the ISPs that provide access to dodgy sites? That is something so easily controlled that all a copyright claimant has to do is to ask for the offending source of copyright violation is nationally filtered. Won't happen, the government will not want to be seen encouraging censorship.

But when you make the consumer a target of the law, you are making innocents into targets for the law. It is not only socially repressive, but it is damaging.

Allow the kid who has no other access to TV to watch it without insisting his parents inspect what he is doing 24/7. Easily done. How?

Filter the damn traffic at source (or at least at the ISP), then you have nothing to worry about. Yes it is a violation of our freedom, but if the government is going to limit my free speech and curiosity, I would rather they did not threaten the curious, but let wandering minds be free to wander elsewhere. Removing their access is reactive and ineffective.

Since TVNZ purports to offer a free TV download service that hardly works through my Orcon connection, it is going to be very hard to prosecute those who download TV. The law should realize that TVNZ is offering a useless service. That is a primary cause for breaches of copyright.

My stance on this is simple. I am against piracy of copyright material. I am against threats to the general public. I see no balance in the new law and predict it will fail.

Never kill the messenger, or the consumer. As the Government can direct an ISP to filter an IP address it deems is a copyright violation - it is just a line in a computer file. So the law is an ass. A total stupidity, and waste.