Punishment should fit the crime

Termination for people caught file-sharing is disproportionate to the problem it causes and will not stop the pirating of copyrighted material, the Green Party said today.

The Commerce Select Committee report on the Copyright Amendment Bill was today tabled in Parliament and recommends that provision for account suspension be retained in the Bill but would not come into force until the Minister of Commerce made regulation to enforce termination.

"There is a danger in heavy-handed regulation for a problem that may only be a temporary result of new technologies upsetting traditional business models" Green Party ICT spokesperson Gareth Hughes said.

"The use of fines rather than internet suspension is a more appropriate sanction for file sharing. The punishment should be proportionate to the crime."

Mr Hughes said access to the internet has become a necessity in an era when more and more public and private services are only provided online.

"File sharing has not proven to be the economic disaster which many people have said it would be.

"Other, more serious online activities, such as fraudulent sales, do not result in internet accounts being suspended.

"The Green Party supports this Bill in principle but opposes the retention of termination in the legislation.

"The compromise before the Committee isn't a compromise on this issue at all. Termination needs to be removed from the Bill," said Mr Hughes.