New Zealand Withdraws Controversial Copyright Law

In a previous issue (Vol 7, No 16, February 11, 2009 "Should ISPs Be Forced to Cut Off Infringers?"), E-TIPS® reported that New Zealand planned to implement a law that would have forced ISPs to cut off the Internet access of users accused of copyright infringement. Just prior to implementation in February, users protested the law by both a traditional demonstration and an online protest that involved users "blacking out" their web sites and social networking pages. Because of this public opposition, the government first delayed in bringing the law into force, and then later decided to withdraw the law. By this time other interested parties had weighed in on the issue. Google made a submission to the Telecommunications Carriers' Forum (TCF), which was deciding the law's implementation, stating that more than one third of the take-down notices that it has received under the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) were not valid copyright claims. The Auckland District Law Society's submission to the TCF pointed to a number of flaws in the legislation that it said would amount to undermining fundamental principles of New Zealand's common law system. It is expected the law to address online copyright issues will be re-introduced after a review, but it is uncertain when and in what form this will happen. Meanwhile, after taking an initial step to implement a similar law despite online protests like the one held in New Zealand, the French National Assembly voted on the issue a second time and rejected the law. For reporting on the events in New Zealand, visit: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-270800.html; or http://tinyurl.com/dcmgpp For information about the New Zealand blackout protest, see: http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html For the story on the Auckland District Law Society's TCF submission, visit: http://tinyurl.com/c24xuy; and for the story on Google's submission to the TCF, visit: http://tinyurl.com/daym2q For reporting on the events in France, visit: http://tinyurl.com/c3jtbf Summary by: Cheryl Cheung