New Zealand to write new copyright act from scratch

A new copyright act has been announced in New Zealand, which will be completely written from scratch. While normally copyright issues are patched with amendments, recent uproars in connection with a law which allows repeat copyrights infringers to be disconnected from the internet (similar to the new French law) and several other issues have led the NZ Minister of Justice and Commerce to completely freeze copyright amendments.

The NZ copyright act was written before the internet and iPod age, which means that the law has become outdated, due to fast technological developments in content copying content. The internet develops too quickly for the law to offer a sufficient balanced copyright protection. To avoid a building a messy law, full of amendments, based on obsolete legal theory, the NZ government plans to re-write the whole act.

It is expected that the rest of the world will closely monitor the development of the new NZ copyright act, because most nations seem to be struggling to keep their laws up-to-date with mass-copying technology. The new copyright act could be an interesting legal experiment, if all stakeholders are allowed to join the debate. However, some fear that the entertainment industry will seize this opportunity to create a new law, which will be in favour of lengthy protection, strict enforcement and few exceptions.