coffee.geek.nz

Section 92A has an impact of every internet user in New Zealand - but 92C is worse.

The ISP/webhost is strongly encouraged by this law to take down the website of any customer accused of copyright infringement.

92C requires a webhost to not only become a judge & court, but also the ISP/webhost is liable if they decide "not guilty" and a real court later decides they were gulity.

It takes a really brave ISP/Webhost to say "not guilty".

92C is clearer than 92A, swifter to punish, and there is no code of practise (not even a draft) to protect those that are accused but are not guilty.

From computerworld.co.nz

A local website has removed recordings of the Conan novels under the threat of legal action from the US, despite the material being in the public domain in New Zealand.

New Zealand-based audio enthusiast website BrokenSea Audio ran into trouble with the copyright holders of Robert E. Howard characters and stories, primarily the stories about Conan the Barbarian, created by the Texan writer in the 1930s.

The material in question is in the public domain, the threat of "one accusation and you're taken down" has caused a host removecontent voluntarily, even though the content is in public domain and they have every right to distribute it.

BrokenSea decided to comply with the demands. All Conan audio dramas and audio books produced by its volunteers have been removed from the website, and a major project — a production of Howard's only full length Conan novel, Hour Of The Dragon, which Mannering had adapted into a full cast audio drama script — has been cancelled.

Under New Zealand copyright law, if a website is accused of copyright infringement, the webhost must take down the content. If the webhost does not, they could be liable for any copyright infringement, even though it isn't their actions that cause the content to be there.

This is in section 92C of our copyright (new technologies) amendment act.

once apon a time, about 3 years ago, i was accused of copyright infringement.

It was a photo, posted to flickr long ago, and used in my blog. It was a photo i took of my chocolate milkshake, out at "The Bach" near island bay.

Here's the photo:

Some random from the intarwebs left comment after comment on this blog saying "You stole my photo". It was complete buillshit. They also started emailing my webhost, repeatedly accusing me of copyright infringement. My webhost dutifully forwarded these to me, i replied it was all complete bollocks.. we moved on.

fast forward to November 2008 - what's an ISP supposed to do under this circumstance? I'd call their claim "unreasonable", but i dislike the idea that my ISP is the judge and adjudicator.

Consider this advice from NZ's Ministry of Economic Development:

What should a copyright owner do if they discover a New Zealand website contains material that infringes his or her copyright?