New Zealand Legislature Mulls File-Sharing Bill

bitserf writes from New Zealand: "Our overlords in government have decided to try and push through some file-sharing legislation. In the bill remains the controversial provisions for three-strikes removal of internet access, though interestingly, nothing prohibiting users from moving to other ISPs. Text of the bill can be found here. Interesting timing, considering ACTA negotiations due to be held in Wellington in April."

Copyright wrong

[Wowsers]

Copyright = copywrong

Maybe someone should tell the politicians that merely visiting ANY website on the internet you will download copywritten material. And that doesn't even begin to deal with "file sharing" sites like Youtube.

When will we get politicians that actually have brains instead of them sitting on them all day long?

Underground ISPs

[h00manist]

Maybe we'll see a return to lots of small company ISP's, which will start to become the place where the censored gather and organize their net connection and other things..

Re:The Net will get more censored, controlled, res

[Anonymous Coward]

The sad thing is, thats how the *internet was always supposed to be*. The internet "backbone" is made up of peered ASes*. What should happened on Good Earth over in the Good Universe was that the internet slowly grew but remained an internetwork at all levels, not degenerated into star topology ISPs vs. peon end user "customers". The whole concept of an "internet service provider" is the wrong model.

It's not too late! Network to thy neighbour!

* On the plus side, AS numbers are finally 32-bit now (RFC4896). On the minus side, how much hardware supports that yet? But if you're not a transit AS you're damn near nothing on the net.

Re:What does NZ produce to make any of this worth

[AK Marc]

What does NZ produce to make any of this worth while?

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, for one. I could name more, but if you haven't heard of that one, there wouldn't be any point. Whether *you* think that's an NZ production is irrelevant (since I'm anticipating such a complaint) but whether those that are in NZ consider it such is the only question that matters, as they are the ones making and living under this rule.

What are the consiquences of a neighbour downloading something off your wireless AP?

Considering how the only unlimited plans in NZ are so heavily throttled that you can't do anything over it other than browse web pages (and poorly at that), WPA is everywhere. I've pulled over in a nice neighborhood in the US suburbs and gotten multiple WAPs to choose from to pull down a map when I was lost. And that was "normal" there. In NZ, I've tried the same in multiple areas, and I've never seen an open WAP that didn't have a paywall. So, feel free to open your connection up. Your neighbors will latch on it so they don't hit their cap. When you get hit with $500 in overages, you'll reconsider your open WAP policy.

Re:What the law actually is...

[wadeal]

How about get the fuck out my my interenet Got a problem with what I'm downloading? How come you even know in the first place? You're copyright lobbyists, not the police. Want to see what I'm downloading? Get the police to get a warrant and see. Nobody without a warrant can enter my house without my permission, or listen to my phone, see my bank account balance etc. So why in fuck do you think you have a right to my PRIVATE information if you're not the police? The same as the above examples only a JUDGE or someone similarly impartial should have anywhere near a right to decide if I'm guilty of something. IE. Fuck Off.