Tag Archives: Internet

article, copyright

Rights holders to develop centralised infringement notice system?

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An update on the enforcement provisions of the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Act.

Where are the notices?

We’ve not received one notice in response to our request for copies of copyright infringement notices sent under the new law. From speaking to ISPs, it seems that very, very few notices have been received at all.

What are the rights holders doing?

Secondly, we heard some very interesting rumours about what the major rights holders organisations are doing. (Please note that this is rumour – but from a source that we trust.)

No one will be surprised to hear that the rights holders were very unhappy about the $25 per notice fee set in the regulations. NZFACT (NZ branch of the US MPAA) believes that they should be “just a matter of cents”.

Indeed, we’ve been told that they’re not going to be sending out any notices even though they heralded the law as a vital protection for their NZ$2.5 billion industry.

Instead they are talking to ISPs and offering to fund a centralised system for the management of the infringement notice process. This is obviously with the aim of making it much cheaper for the ISPs, so that they can go back to the Ministry of Economic Development to get the per notice fee reduced at the six-monthly review.

Some questions

This raises a number of questions:

  • How will the centralised notice system work?
  • Who will have access to the system and under what terms? Is it just for the major rights holders or will it be open to everyone?
  • It will be necessary for any system to have some account holder details included (for matching purposes) – who will have access to this information? Won’t this circumvent the law’s careful approach to maintaining account holder privacy?
  • And finally, what’s in it for the ISPs?

Contact us

If you know anything about this proposal we’d love to hear more.

article, copyright

Send us your copyright infringement notices!

September 1st is the start of the new copyright regime, where rights-holders can send infringment notices to people they accuse of infringing their copyright.

We would like copies of those notices. This will allow us to help monitor how the law is being used, including:

  • assessing the quality of the notices
  • finding out who is sending them and for what sort of works
  • help us detect anyone abusing the system

Please email your notices to notices@techliberty.org.nz. Feel free to include other information including whether you deny the allegation or not. We promise to keep your name and other identifying details private.

article, copyright

The Infringing File Sharing Act starts today

Welcome to the new world of the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Act.

This is the law that:

  • Makes internet account holders liable for the actions of others, even when there is no reasonable expectation that they could control their behaviour.
  • Will make it very hard for anyone, including universities, libraries, motels and cafes, to offer internet access to their patrons as they can’t risk penalties of up to $15,000.
  • Can fine people for downloading material that isn’t even available for purchase in New Zealand.
  • Takes away the right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty, by assuming that complainants are telling the truth, leaving people having to prove that they didn’t do something.

While the law comes into effect on September 1st, notices can be sent for activity up to 21 days earlier. This means that you could get a notice for any activity from August 11th onwards – today.

What’s covered?

The law is meant to be aimed at people infringing copyright by downloading material without permission over peer to peer (P2P) file sharing – BitTorrent, eDonkey, etc. However it is written in such a way that it might be possible to use it for other forms of online infringement such as downloading from websites or watching streaming video. We’ll be testing that further from September 1st.

Who is at risk?

The person whose name is on the internet account. They’re liable for the actions of all people who use that internet account.

What can I do to protect myself?

If you’re the account holder, make sure you know what everyone who uses your internet is doing. Don’t let people use your account if you don’t trust them not to download infringing material via file-sharing.

More information

article, copyright

Filesharing: What does the law cover?

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As is often the case with new laws there is not always a clear understanding of how it will be applied when it gets to real cases in court. Previously we’ve talked about the definition of an IPAP in the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Act, and now we’re going to look into the definition of “file sharing”.

The text of the Act defines “file sharing” in Section 122A(1) as:

file sharing is where—

  • “(a) material is uploaded via, or downloaded from, the Internet using an application or network that enables the simultaneous sharing of material between multiple users; and
  • “(b) uploading and downloading may, but need not, occur at the same time

Much of the Internet is designed in a way that content is simultaneously shared between multiple users, so does the new law apply only to peer to peer (P2P) filesharing or does it apply to any kind of sharing of content between people?

MED’s Answer

InternetNZ put this question to the Ministry of Economic Development who responded that by their interpretation it only covers P2P sharing. While this is useful, the view of the MED is not the only one taken into account by the courts.

Parliament

Hansard, the official record of Parliament, is also used as a reference when courts need to understand the intent of a piece of legislation. The question of what is included was asked during the debate for the second reading of the bill:

JACINDA ARDERN: I would like to request the Minister, given that Hansard will be used as a record going forward in the way that this billis applied in practical terms, to give the Committee his view of the definition of “file sharing”, how he sees that definition being applied once this legislation is enacted and becomes law. For instance, does he believe that it includes an attachment to an email? How far does his view of this definition go? I think clarification from the Ministerwould be helpful for this debate.

Speaking for the Government, Hon Dr Nick Smith replied:

Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment): I will also respond to the question from Jacinda Ardern about where in this bill the definition of file sharing is. It is quite simply set out in clause 7 of Part 1. That clause sets out quite clearly the definition of file sharing, and I further say that, yes, that definition does include an attachment that involves the sharing of files.

This appears to clearly state that the definition is not solely limited to P2P networks, but covers any method of sharing files, whether that be streaming, email, private or public locker sites, or any other method yet to be discovered.

Select Committee

Rick Shera has helpfully pointed out the following from the Select Committee’s report:

We recommend that the definition of file sharing in section 122A(1) be amended by including reference to downloading or uploading material using networks or applications that allow material to be shared among multiple users. This would avoid inadvertently capturing activities such as emailing or downloading that did not involve file sharing; if such activities breached copyright, they would be actionable under existing provisions in the Copyright Act.

Conclusion

With MED believing one thing and the politicians who passed the law believing another, what is the truth of the matter? The answer is that we cannot know until it is tested in court (or clarified by a law change).

article, meta

Defend the NZ internet

This week has seen the launch of two new groups dedicated to protecting the internet in New Zealand.

Retake the Net

The first is Retake the Net, which, in their own words:

It’s increasingly clear that there are serious issues, both in New Zealand and abroad, with internet infrastructure, use, and control. Rather than simply moaning about them, the Retake the Net crew decided to start actually _doing_ something about the issues (with, of course, as much help as we can muster).

RtN’s all about fostering projects which help promote the best aspects of the net, and using new technologies to make sure people can communicate freely. We’re also about increasing the real engagement between government and citizens, and promoting New Zealand’s transition from a consumer to a producer of content and information. We realise that there’s a long way to go, but there’s no time like the present to start.

NZ Internet Freedom Collective

Then there’s the NZ Internet Freedom Collective, who are initially aiming their efforts at the new copyright law that was just passed:

Our founding purpose will be to establish a broad campaign of political, legal and social action aimed squarely at achieving the total repeal of the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011 and the securing of our Internet rights and freedoms in the next election.

These new groups are both looking for members, or you could consider joining one of the following:

And, of course, at Tech Liberty we’re still looking for people who want to be involved in defending our civil liberties in the digital age.

copyright

Submission: Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Act Regulations

Tech  Liberty has made a submission to the Ministry of Economic Development on their discussion document for the regulations surrounding the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Act recently passed into law.

Our submission argues that ISPs are being increasingly put into a difficult position of escalating compliance costs imposed by regulations such as this, while having a very limited ability to prevent the behaviour creating those costs. We believe ISPs should not be involved in any way shape or form in determining what end users can and cannot do with the Internet.

The submission also addresses the re-opening of debate around the division of costs, as the discussion document has again raised the possibility that ISPs will bear significant setup and on-going costs in handling these notices. We also note that information provided to those being accused of infringing copyright should be full and complete, and sufficient to assist account holders in identifying the root source of the claim of infringement.

Full submission: Tech Liberty Submission on Copyright Infringing Filesharing Act Regulations [PDF].

article, copyright

Quick guide to the new copyright bill

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The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Bill is a replacement for the abandoned section 92A of the Copyright Act. It provides provisions for media companies to accuse people of infringing copyright, and for those people to be fined by the Copyright Tribunal. It also includes the penalty of disconnecting their internet – but this provision will initially be suspended.

The Bill went through one round of submissions (see ours) but the second reading was done under parliamentary urgency on the 13th of April and it is expected to be passed, still under urgency, on the 14th of April.

Updates: the bill has passed its third reading and will come into effect on September 1st, 2011. The Ministry of Economic Development is consulting on the regulations that will help with the administration of the law.

Improvements

The Bill has some improvements over section 92A:

  • It has replaced the overly wide definition of ISP (Internet Service Provider) with the idea of an IPAP (Internet Protocol Address Provider).
  • The person accused of infringing copyright now has a chance to defend themselves against the accusations.
  • It doesn’t make ISPs responsible for making decisions about disconnection – they just have to pass messages between the accuser and the accused.
  • It better respects the privacy of account holders.

Major problems

But overall it still has some major problems:

  • It makes the person whose name is on the internet account liable for all actions done by any user of that connection. Flatmates will be responsible for the people they live with, businesses will be responsible for their staff, parents will be responsible for their kids, librarians will be responsible for the users of their free internet terminals. Sharing your internet connection will put you at legal risk.
  • It includes the idea that the Copyright Tribunal should believe the accusation from the media companies unless the account holder can prove it to be wrong. This is even when these accusations have been proven time and time again to often be substantially inaccurate. There are no penalties for making false accusations.
  • It still includes internet disconnection as a penalty. Initially this provision will be suspended but it can be reactivated at the whim of the government. We oppose disconnection.

Political support

National, Labour and the Maori Party are voting in favour of the Bill.

The Greens are voting against it.

Tech Liberty articles about the bill

Other articles of note

article

Website takedowns: a followup

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We recently wrote about how an offensive website was taken offline by complaints.

In particular, we talked about the tactics that were used to take them down and whether they were a good thing for the internet or not. The two tactics described were:

  1. Complaining to the ISP that the site breached their terms of service. We said this risks reducing opinion on the internet to the level of whatever a company’s PR department finds acceptable.
  2. Using copyright complaints over the site’s use of a photo without permission. Taking down an entire site over what is arguably a reasonable use of an image is an affront to freedom of speech and shows how dangerous these US-style shoot-first-ask-questions-later copyright laws are.

The article attracted a fair bit of comment both for and against the use of these tactics. We also received some new information and thought it was worth posting a followup.
Continue reading Website takedowns: a followup →

article, copyright, suppression

Taking down websites you don’t agree with

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This is a post about the tactics used to take down a New Zealand website hosted in the the USA and what they mean for the Internet. (Update post.)

The website

Soon after the Christchurch quake, a website (christchurchquake.net) was published that said the quake was God’s punishment for Christchurch’s tolerance of homosexuality, with God being especially annoyed by Gay Ski Week. The website also made a number of other very odd claims concerning a conspiracy of “Phoenician-descended swamp lesbians” headed by Helen Clark that had taken over New Zealand.

The takedown

The site is no longer available (Google cache here). This is because a number of people found the site highly offensive, and some of them decided that they would do what they could to get the site taken off the Internet.

The author of the site could not be identified so most action was aimed at getting Bluehost, a company based in the US state of Utah, to take it down. Two main tactics were employed:
Continue reading Taking down websites you don’t agree with →

filtering

Is this what the DIA filter looks like?

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What we’re seeing

A thread over on gpforums.co.nz has discussed problems Telecom users have had accessing content delivered by various CDNs (content delivery networks – used by many sites to handle video streaming).

Network traces showed a large amount of packet loss and the path taken by the data looked a bit unusual.

This appears to be the first sign of a site being either adversely affected or actually blocked by the DIA filter. We’ve also had confirmation of other ISPs (Internet service providers) believed to be using the filter having access blocked.

What we believe is happening

The filter works by creating alternative routes to particular network IP addresses and passing them onto the participating ISPs. Traffic to those IP addresses is then passed to the DIA and checked by the filter to see whether it is going to the blocked site or another site on the same IP address. If it is going to a blocked site, the user is redirected to www.dce.net.nz, or else it allowed through the DIA’s ISP and out onto the Internet. (Read more in our Filtering Frequently Asked Questions article.)

Inspection of the traces shows that the traffic is going through an ISP with a relationship with the Department. The address 124.150.165.62 in the traces is from that ISP. The traffic is then going out through a link that the ISP has to Australia.

This ISP’s link to the Internet appears to be either under considerable pressure or is simply broken. The level of traffic being dropped by it (as reported by users and our own investigation) is likely to be degrading access significantly to any site hosted – but not actually blocked – by any IP address the DIA is wanting to inspect.

What does this mean?

The site in question hosts anime (animated video from Japan and other countries). While we believe that some anime work has been found objectionable in New Zealand, we cannot find any reference to this site being banned by the Chief Censor.

Even if one video at the site has been blocked by the DIA, this blocking appears to be generally degrading performance to other material on that site or any other site hosted by the same content delivery network.

The Department has repeatedly denied access to the filter list in the expectation that hiding the list will prevent people from accessing it. As this story illustrates, it’s not difficult to uncover the filter given the effects it has on an IP address being filtered/intercepted.

We’re very interested in hearing from anyone else having difficulties accessing a site where 124.150.165.62 appears in a traceroute to the site. We’re particularly interested in legal content being degraded by passing through the DIA’s filter.