Internet Blackout Protest is Not About Filesharing

In the past two days thousands of users of social networking sites, such as Twitter, have been answering the call to join the New Zealand Internet blackout protest against insane copyright law. You may have seen a lot of blacked out avatars and wondered what is happening. You may also be wondering why you should care.

Let's get one thing straight first off - this protest and the widespread concern about the enactment of Section 92A of the New Zealand Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 is not about New Zealanders wanting an Internet free-for-all. It is not about letting software, music and video pirates off the hook.

It is about ordinary people, users of the Internet like you and me, wanting to be protected against unproven, possibly malicious, accusations of copyright infringement and having our connections to the Internet summarily removed without recourse to natural justice.

It is about a law that deems users to be guilty upon accusation, not proof, and the draconian measure that ISP's are forced to take.

S.92A states:

1. Internet service provider must have policy for terminating accounts of repeat infringers
2. (1) An Internet service provider must adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for termination, in appropriate circumstances, of the account with that Internet service provider of a repeat infringer.
3. (2) In subsection (1), repeat infringer means a person who repeatedly infringes the copyright in a work by using 1 or more of the Internet services of the Internet service provider to do a restricted act without the consent of the copyright owner.

On the face of it, this looks fairly innocuous but in reality, and in context of the rest of the Amendment Act, this is a very dangerously-worded piece of legislation. The onus of being judge and jury falls on the ISP's. Furthermore, every downstream provider of Internet access to another person is deemed to be an ISP for the purposes of this Act. "Guilt upon accusation" comes in because all that this law requires is for a purported rights holder to claim that their copyright has been violated. The law then compels the ISP to act and to disconnect the alleged offender. There is no requirement for proof and no right of appeal.

With wording of much of the Amendment Act being left open to interpretation, this disconnection policy is the section that is causing the most backlash. The clause was removed by Select Committee and New Zealanders breathed a sigh of relief. However, when the House passed the Bill, the clause, S.92A, had been slipped back in. A very good summary of how this came to pass is here: Back on the OIA trail - s92A, this time

So, why would anyone outside of New Zealand care?

When I started writing this I wondered how to explain that government actions, especially against piracy and illegal acts on the Internet, are often held up as examples by other governments. That loss of human rights anywhere, such as the right to be deemed innocent until proven guilty, the right to be heard in a court of law - the kinds of things enshrined in the NZ Bill of Rights and UN Charters and the natural justice many in the Western democracies expect - this loss is a danger to human rights everywhere. I wondered how to explain that in a connected world where the instigators of this new law reap financial profit across the globe, recording companies are not likely to stop with lil' ole New Zealand.

Then I saw this comment on Lawrence Lessig's blog:

Protecting copyright though Internet service does not sound like the best idea to me, but New Zealand does seem like a nice small place to try it out. If it fails, no big lost (sic) except to a few kiwis. If it succeeds, it could be tried in larger countries.

If the recording companies can get people's Internet access removed without having to provide any evidence, without needing to chase around with cease and desist letters, without having to take someone to court, and one government - anywhere - falls over and allows its citizens rights to be trampled just to appease big business in this way, do you really think this will stop with New Zealand?

I don't, and nor do many others. So, all this is why we are protesting. The new clause of the Act does not take effect until 28th February. It is not too late to stand up and protest. It is not too late for the government to change its mind. And living outside of New Zealand does not mean you should not protest.

You can find some information about the protest on my "Join the NZ Internet Blackout Protest" post.

Media Reports About the Internet Blackout Protest

• No surprise at growing dismay over Copyright Act - InternetNZ
• Section 92 blackout campaigners extend fight to business - National Business Review
• Stephen Fry rails against NZ internet law - Stuff
• Protest over copyright law gathers pace - TVNZ
• The lights are going out all over Twitter - the Guardian, UK
• Kiwis go all black over copyright enforcement laws - The Register
• Guilty by accusation copyright protesters paint it black - NZ Herald
• Foes of copyright act call for photo black-out - The National Business Review
• New Zealand creative freedom website encourages blackout against Section 92A law - SC Magazine
• New Zealand Goes Black - O'Reilly Radar
• "Guilt Upon Accusation" copyright law leads to Social Media #blackout protest - The Fayetteville Observer blog
• The Fry effect: 'blackout' protest goes viral - Computerworld NZ
• Stephen Fry leads protest against 'guilt upon accusation' copyright laws - TV3 News
• Fans use Twitter, Facebook and MySpace to protest against copyright law - NME News
• Fry backs campaign against 92A - NetGuide

Articles in Other Languages

• Protestaktion gegen Internet-Sperregelung in Neuseeland - heise online
• Aktion "Blackout": Neuseelands User sehen schwarz - Zommer de
• Filesharing-Protest gestartet: Neuseeländische Internetnutzer protestieren gegen Three-Strikes-Gesetzgebung und nutzen unter anderem ein neues Medium: Twitter. gulli News

Other NZ Articles about the Internet blackout protest & the reasons for it:

• New government fails to defend internet freedom - David Farrar
• The Public Bad - Russell Brown
• ISPs: New copyright law puts business in the gun; scrap it - The National Business Review
• Creative Freedom Foundation - sign the petition and read what you can do.
• Say good bye to freedom on the internet - was nice while it lasted.
• Techsploder: Join New Zealand Internet Blackout Protest - the site that started the protest action.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!