Rights and Responsibilities

Presentation by Councillor Neil James to the InternetNZ Council on 11 June 2010.

The New Zealand Government has come up with a proposal to deal with the vexed issue of illicit peer-to-peer filesharing. The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill will repeal Section 92a of the Copyright Act 1994. It sets out a fairer regime that is focused on public education via notices and tests allegations of infringement through a Tribunal process.

The Internet has transformed communications in New Zealand as the number of information sources easily available to the public has exploded from barely a dozen media outlets to thousands of websites, blogs, Facebook pages and Tweets on Twitter. 

In recent years, the United Nations has proposed that Internet access be made a 'human right'. Finland and a range of other European countries, including Estonia, France and Greece are leading the way, having already enshrined access to the Internet as a basic human right.

Future Digital

A discussion starter on priorities for a future Government

The Internet marks a step change in New Zealand’s access to markets, people and knowledge. The Internet is disruptive, changing almost every aspect of our lives. The solutions and opportunities are global, as are the big forces and challenges we face.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a plurilateral trade agreement for establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement. It has been negotiated between the US, Canada, Japan, the European Union, South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand and, in its drafting stages, contained significant provisions relating to non-commercial copyright infringement via the Internet.

The InternetNZ Research Fellowship in Cyberlaw was a research position at Victoria University’s Law School designed to support the development of expertise in legal and policy issues relating to cyberlaw.