Kiwis to protest ‘sneaky three strikes legislation

Last week, we reported that New Zealand had adopted a bill to implement a three strikes graduated response system to thwart illegal file-sharing on the internet. That didn’t go down well with a number of kiwis, that now plan to take to the streets to protest the new law.

It’s not just the law itself that goes against the grain with some people. In summary, the new law implements a system in which a series of notices is sent to alleged infringers, that, if they refuse to change their behaviour, are fined with a maximum of 15.000 New Zealand dollar (just over 8000 euro). If that has not effect, a court can order the file-sharer’s internet connection to be severed for up to six months.

The protesters mostly find fault with the procedure used to rush the bill through parliament. After the Christchurch earthquake, parliament temporarily spends only little time to debate bills. The bill was put to vote and adopted under urgency procedures, put in place to get New Zealand up to speed after the quake.

Source: ZeroPaid