Three-Strikes Copyright Law In NZ Halves Infringement 202
Bismillah writes "The 'Skynet' copyright act has been in effect for six months in New Zealand and rights holders reckon it halved the number of infringements in the first month. Even so, they're not happy and say over forty per cent of Kiwis continue to infringe online. The fix? Rightsholders want the current NZ$25 infringement notice processing fee payable to ISPs to be dropped to just a few dollars or even pennies, so that they can send out thousands of notices a month. ISPs want the fee to increase four times instead, to cover their costs. Unfortunately, the submissions for the review of the infringement notice fees are kept secret by the government."
Begpardon? (Score:5, Funny)
It's not rights holders doing the complaining, it's the industry associations (read: RIAA/MPAA or NZ equivalents), who themselves hold no copyrights apart from their corporate logos.
To them, I refer them to the response given in Arkell -v- Pressdram (1971):
We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr J. Arkell. We note that Mr Arkell's attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off.
Re:Pays to Be Sneaky (Score:4, Funny)
New Zealand and rights holders reckon it halved the number of infringements in the first month.
Or just as likely, the heaviest downloaders just found better ways to fly under the radar. If "success" is measured by a drop from eighty percent to forty percent of users "stealing" content, I'd say it's time for the Industry to admit total defeat.
Its hard to spot a Kiwi on radar.
Re:Pays to Be Sneaky (Score:5, Funny)
given that the little buggers can't fly, its kinda hard to spot them on radar
They fly at mach 6 and over a hundred thousand feet. They can pull 40 g in a turn, and they are being trained to protect the planet from spacecraft
Their radar cross section is less than a female mosquito's antenna. They also make a great sandwich.