Lack of access encourages illegal downloads

A lack of timely and legal access to global recording industry products, such as movies and music, is encouraging New Zealanders to illegally download them, says a New Zealand entrepreneur and technocrat.

At a parliamentary commerce select committee today Lance Wiggs, a co-founder of Pacific Fibre, which has plans to set up high-speed broadband links between New Zealand, Australia and the United States, took a markedly different view towards illegal downloading than recording industry representatives who also appeared.

Mr Wiggs, making a submission on the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill, argued there shouldn't be an onus on ISPs (internet service providers) to play a role in stopping or discouraging illegal downloading carried out by their customers.

They shouldn't be forced to "piss off" their customers by warning them about how they use the internet, he said.

He was vehemently against a provision in the bill which can lead to repeat offenders having their connections suspended and suggested the recording industry needed to get with the times and make films available to legally buy online on release, rather than holding out in preference for release in theatres.

New Zealanders seeking to download the latest music or films were sometimes finding the only way to do so was through illegal means, he said.

The bill, which amends the Copyright Act 1994, provides for ISPs to give account holders infringement notices warning that file sharing may infringe copyright, and that continued infringement may result in enforcement action.

A third notice can open the way for legal action involving compensation orders and potentially an internet connection suspension.

New Zealand music industry representatives said illegal downloads were decimating the industry here and that music sales for the vast majority of artists had dropped from $119 million in 2001 to less than $70m last year.

They argued ISPs should be leading players in helping tackle the problem and that it was pointless that the three warning proviso in the bill only applied to recordings from one copyright holder, meaning after the first warning offenders could simply move on and target another copyright holder.

Arguments on both sides of the equation are complex, but Recording Industry Association NZ (Rianz) chief executive Campbell Smith said the bottom line was simply that strong deterrents were needed to discourage illegal downloaders and ensure they were instead encouraged to download from legal sources.

Mr Wiggs said the people who were stealing the recordings and making them available to others were the ones that should be targeted.

In a world where internet connections were increasingly important parts of everyday life - including for health and safety reasons - punishment for downloads should not involve taking away rights to access, Mr Wiggs said.