New Zealand's Section 92A

The new law requiring ISPs to rat on customers who might be downloading pirated material continues to be controversial in New Zealand:

Amidst much heated debate and controversy, Section 92A of the Copyright (New Technologies) Act finally comes into force at the end of the month. This requires that ISPs "adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for termination, in appropriate circumstances of the account of a repeat infringer".

There's an old saying that goes "when it rains lemons, make lemonade" and this is precisely what the TCF has managed to do, making the best of what can best be described as an unattractive situation, by performing the delicate balancing act of complying with the legal requirements of the act whilst allowing ISPs to be as fair as the act allows.

The TCF is the Telecommunication Carriers' Forum, an industry assocation of kiwi phone companies. An organization of content creators called The Creative Freedom Foundation calls it the "Guilt Upon Accusation" law.

The EU recently rejected a similar law. Although there's no proposal to make a similar law in the USA, the RIAA has been approaching ISPs to sign them up to similarly take the law into their own hands and disconnect suspected violators with no recourse.