The New Zealand entertainment industry is looking to work with Internet service providers (ISPs) to thrash out how tough new online anti-piracy measures are to be implemented.
The government has confirmed that the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 would come into force on Oct. 31. However, the government has bowed to pressure from the telecommunications carriers and has delayed until next February the implementation of measures relating to the role of ISPs in policing online piracy.
Organizations representing the telecommunications industry are united in their opposition to the measures, which will force ISPs to adopt policies which would lead to the termination of repeat copyright infringers' accounts.
However, organizations such as the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) and the New Zealand Federation Against Copyright Theft (NZFACT) are confident that they can work with ISPs to make the new laws work. In a statement, RIANZ chief executive Campbell Smith says that ISP co-operation would have a very significant impact on the problem of peer-to-peer file sharing and a "graduated response" system is a sensible, proportionate way of addressing the issue.
Representatives from the entertainment and telecommunications industries are due to meet in the coming days to discuss the legislation, while associate commerce minister Judith Tizard, the architect of the new laws, and communications and information technology minister David Cunliffe will also meet with technology industry representatives shortly.
Other key elements of the new copyright legislation include the legalization of music format shifting for private use, new provisions relating to the circumvention of copy protection measures, and the continuation of a partial ban on the parallel importation of new release DVDs.
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