Librarians throw the book at bad law

A secret cabal of librarians have raised voices from a mere whisper to a thunderous murmur, as they point out the chilling effect of changes to the copyright laws and freedom of information. They have widespread agreement.

Somehow, the Labour Government managed to "reinsert the clauses in a last minute action, making New Zealand a guinea pig for experimental cyberlaw." An experimental law that could shut down blogs on the basis of guilty until proven innocent. Fantastic. NZ Labour, the gift that keeps on giving.

Says ISPANZ (who are not librarians):

"On the one hand we're being asked to enable an economy through global networking and ICT efficiency, and on the other hand we're being asked to stop that connectivity by accusation alone, in order to try to solve another industry’s problem with how they make money off their Copyright franchises.”

Scoop Article: NZ Cyber Laws generate page 404 errors for innocent users

The full force of LIANZA (the aforementioned secret cabal) weighs in: Government should be fined 10 cents a day until Common Sense is returned

LIANZA, the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa, representing 460 public, educational, commercial, industrial, legal and government libraries in New Zealand, has joined the widespread protest against the implementation of new section 92A of the Copyright Act, which comes into force on 28 February 2009.

LIANZA has three major concerns about this section. The first concern relates to the extremely wide definition of internet service provider. As written, every person or organisation that has a website is an ISP, as is every library, school, educational institution, association, government department, company, business and office that provides Internet access to its users or to its staff.

The second concern is the implication that a library or other organisation’s Internet connection may be terminated if an accusation is made that copyright is being repeatedly breached on a library or company-owned computer. LIANZA is concerned that this is a reversal of a key principle of New Zealand law; that a person (or organisation) is deemed innocent until proved guilty.

LIANZA’s third concern is the requirement of section 92A, that an internet service provider must terminate the account of a repeat infringer. This draconian provision would seem to mean that, if a user is found on more than one occasion to have illegally accessed or downloaded copyright materials, or otherwise breached copyright in a work, the ISP must terminate the Internet access not of the individual accused of breaching copyright, but of the account holder – that is, of the entire library.

Don't make these guys angry. Fix the legislation National.