[x-pubpol] NZ: Eight ‘Music Pirates’ To Face Copyright Tribunal, One To Defend In Person

[Joly MacFie]

(via KK)

http://torrentfreak.com/eight-music-pirates-to-face-copyright-tribunal-one-to-defends-in-person-121009/

New Zealand rightsholders have come under fire for failing to fully utilize
the so-called “three strikes” mechanism after they sent out less than 3,000
notices to alleged pirates in a year. However, it’s now been revealed that
eight individuals are now just one step away from the most serious
punishments available, just six shy of the French total after they sent out
a massive 1.1 million warnings.

The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act was implemented in
New Zealand last year but in July 2012 it was revealed that far from
sending out large quantities of warnings to deter would-be file-sharers,
rightsholders have been playing a cautious game.

RIANZ, the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand, sent out just
2,766 notices between October 2011 and April 2012. The movie industry sent
none at all.

In contrast, in France, where a similar “3 strikes” scheme is operated,
rightholders have been in overdrive. Between October 2010 and last month
they had monitored 3 million IP addresses, had 1.15 million “first strike”
notices and nearly 103,000 second warnings sent
out<http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-agency-sends-1-15-million-warnings-in-2-years-takes-0-0012-to-court-120906>
.

The problem, Kiwi rightsholders insist, is that it costs too much to send a
notice, a problem not experienced in France. But interestingly, and despite
the huge difference in the number of warnings sent out, when it comes to
summoning individuals to face their final punishments, the two countries
are not that far apart, even though the French scheme has been running a
year longer.

France has sent out more than a million first strike notices and almost
103,000 second strikes, ultimately sending just 14 cases to French
prosecutors. New Zealand has sent out less than 2,800 notices in total, yet
as revealed<http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/7787687/Skynet-accused-takes-case-to-Tribunal>
today
is already sending 8 people to face the country’s Copyright Tribunal.

All of the individuals are targets of the Recording Industry Association of
New Zealand (RIANZ). Their alleged offenses have not been detailed but it
is presumed that they were monitored sharing music either on BitTorrent or
another similar file-sharing system. All will have already received three
“enforcement notices” against their ISP account but failed to modify their
behavior.

Three of the individuals are customers of the ISP Telecom, while the
remainder are customers of TelstraClear and Slingshot, Fairfox reports.

Seven of the accused have asked the Copyright Tribunal to consider their
case on paper based evidence alone. An eighth took up the opportunity to
appear before the Tribunal in person, a Justice Ministry spokesman said.

The punishments faced by the eight are more harsh than those faced by their
French counterparts. The Tribunal can hand down a NZ $15,000 (US $12,337)
fine, in France the maximum is 1,500 euros (NZ $2,368 / US $1,948)

In August the first French conviction was handed
down<http://torrentfreak.com/french-3-strikes-court-fines-first-file-sharer-even-though-hes-innocent-120813/>.
A 40-year-old man was given a 150 euro fine after he ended up taking the
blame for his ex-wife’s file-sharing habits. Punishments in New Zealand are
not expected to exceed a few hundred dollars.

The New Zealand notices, at NZ $25 (roughly $20 USD) per shot, are too
expensive to send in large numbers and should be around NZ $2 each,
rightsholders say. The ISPs, on the other hand, say that they costed their
systems to handle large amounts and are now out of pocket. They want the
cost of notices to increase. Last month the government
said<http://torrentfreak.com/isps-landed-with-up-to-76-of-costs-of-sending-3-strikes-piracy-notices-230905/>
the
prices would stay put.

And that might indeed be a good idea. The French send just over 0.0011% of
notice recipients for punishment, currently the Kiwis are sending 0.29%, a
huge difference.

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
 http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com
 VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
--------------------------------------------------------------
-
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.isoc-ny.org/pipermail/x-pubpol-isoc-ny.org/attachments/20121009/5a313e29/attachment-0001.htm>