Background
The old, paper-based concept of copyright struggles in today’s digital world. With the advent of the internet, copyrighted material is easily copied and made accessible to many users, worldwide. The right of a copyright-holder to own exclusively and exploit the copyrighted material for it’s own commercial benefit is made difficult and costly as a result.
The Copyright Act 1994 has a new Amendment Act assented to on 11 April 2008 - the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008. The Bill includes provision for dealing with copyright with new technologies in today's digital environment.
For ISPs and other organisations that facilitate internet access (e.g. a university will be an ISP under the Act definition) apart from introducing welcome protections from liability for transient copying over their systems, the main changes are:
- Introduction of a notice and takedown regime (in sections 92C and D) for stored or hosted material which is alleged to infringe copyright (e.g., on a third party website hosted by an ISP); and
- Provision (section 92A) of a termination regime whereby an ISP must have and reasonably implement a policy for the termination of internet accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances
ISP Copyright Code of Practice
A TCF Copyright working party was established in September 2008 to develop a self regulated Internet Service Provider (ISP) Copyright Code of practice covering the process for management of infringing material in accordance with the Act, which would be adopted by TCF members and ISP’s in New Zealand.
The working party members are:
- Orcon
- Telecom
- TelstraClear
- Vodafone
- Woosh
- WorldxChange
- InternetNZ
- ISPANZ
- MED (observers)
This project includes direct consultation with TCF members, InternetNZ, ISPANZ’s and selected New Zealand rights-holder groups (such as RIANZ, PPNZ, NZFACT, APRA and AMCOS), with a view to achieving industry-wide consensus as to how the process will be managed, given that rights-holders will be at the forefront of enforcement activity..
This Working Party will also provide an on-going forum for discussion on issues related to Copyright and might work with rights-holder organisations on general educational campaigns on a to be agreed basis.
A draft Code designed to enable organisations to comply with Section 92A of the Copyright Act is expected to be released for public consultation in mid to late January 2009.
Further work will then be undertaken by the Working Party to produce a subsequent version of the Code that will include a process for complying with 92C (notice and takedown of stored or hosted material) of the Act.
Project Scope
A copy of the full project scope is available here.
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