Proposed New Zealand Copyright Reform Killed

Proposed changes to copyright law in New Zealand that could have seen people get knocked offline if they were suspected of using peer to peer networks has been officially killed. The proposed change was withdrawn because negotiations between motion picture and recoding industries and Internet service providers failed to come up with an implementation plan. TelestrClear, one of the largest ISP, in Kiwi-Land stated from the onset that they were not going to sign on

Major corporations had also express concern that entire corporations would have Internet service cut off because of the actions of one employee. Concerns were even expressed from the public sector especially from the education sector concerned that if students try downloading songs or movies then the entire school would be disconnected from the Internet. This attempt at "reforming" copyright ignited public outrage due to the fact that the motion picture and recording companies didn't need proof, those who were suspected of violating copyright could have got their Internet service cut off.

This has to be one of the biggest knee jerk attempts to protect the interests of the entertainment industry. There are others around the world that are going to be debated and some will become law. There may be a need to modernize copyright laws that were passed in the days when the publishing industry tried to get photocopiers banned from public libraries. Heavy handed approaches won't work.