Satellite investigates….
The ‘Guilt Upon Accusation’ law and what it will mean for you…
A lot of you may have recently been noticing some of your friends ‘blacking out’ their Facebook and Bebo profile photos in protest against something which has been dubbed the “Guilt Upon Accusation” law by those protesting against it. In basic terms, what it is referring to is the fact that the New Zealand government has proposed an amendment to the current Copyright Act which allows Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to disconnect your access to the internet if they suspect that you are using it for illegal purposes. Taking into consideration that the original document was passed in 1994, long before household computers became popular and website channels such as Youtube were even created, let alone conceived, a lot has changed on the internet landscape to such an extent that we rely heavily on being able to access websites in order to function on a day-to-day basis, thus an update in the current legislation is well overdue. However, the repercussions of the amendments proposed have a potentially dire effect on students and citizens of New Zealand alike.
Section 92 of the Copyright Amendment Act is troubling a lot of people because it is effectively inserting a new section into the bill called Internet Service Provider Liabilty. Section 92A purports that if a user of the internet may have broken Copyright Laws (whether it be illegally downloading music or filtering the latest episodes of Desperate Housewives) that, as of the 28th February, 2009, your ISP provider (that is, the people who essentially are a gateway to the internet and regulate who and how people access online services) will have a right shut off your internet access if they think that you are going to be a repeat offender. Section 92A of the proposed amendment reads as follows:
(1) An Internet service provider must adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for termination, in appropriate circumstances, of the account with that Internet service provider of a repeat infringer.
(2) In subsection (1), repeat infringer means a person who repeatedly infringes the copyright in a work by using 1 or more of the Internet services of the Internet service provider to do a restricted act without the consent of the copyright owner.
As a result of the proposed legislation, a number of people are encouraging New Zealander’s to show their disdain by ‘blacking out’ their internet presence. News of this stand is catching on fast, with international celebrities such as Stephen Fry showing their solidarity online. Perhaps the most publicised group that is taking a stand against Section 92A is the Creative Freedom Foundation, a lobby group founded by Bronwyn Holloway-Smith and Matthew Holloway as a reaction to the Guilt upon Accusation law. Bronwyn says she has always been interested in copyright laws as they can work both with and against local artists in New Zealand.