Monday 11:18am (5th October 2009)

Fate of Section 92A review to be decided within weeks (and NZFACT want a Guilt Upon Accusation Law)..
Stuff.co.nz reports on a so-called "copyright crusader" (read: a Hollywood Lobbyist from Washington) who was flown over by NZFACT to argue for a return to the original Section 92A and Guilt Upon Accusation. Stunningly the article has what I believe may be the first admission from NZFACT that Section 92A had no due process and would have have involved accusations punishing New Zealanders. They say, "[NZFACT] envisaged ISPs would act on infringement notices generated automatically by copyright holders, who would identify infringers by tracking traffic on file-sharing sites." This is the ugly side of NZFACT, asking for a return to a law that Prime Minister John Key called "draconian". The Stuff article also says that "Commerce Minister Simon Power says he expects the Government will be in a position to decide on the outcome of the review of section 92a in a couple of weeks.