Global General

NZ defies UN report on Internet disconnection law

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-07 15:05

WELLINGTON - The New Zealand's government is refusing to back down on a controversial law that allows Internet providers to disconnect users for alleged copyright infringements, despite a UN report that says Internet access is a human right.

Earlier this year, New Zealand passed the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act that would allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to send up to three infringement notices to alleged copyright infringers before seeking to disconnect them.

In a report on Internet freedom last month, UN special rapporteur Frank La Rue said he was "alarmed by proposals to disconnect users from Internet access if they violate intellectual property rights."

Justice Minister Simon Power said Tuesday he had not put in a great deal of thought about whether Internet access was a human right, but he was "very satisfied" with the legislation and had no intention to revisit it, the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA) reported.

"The legislation that we passed a number of weeks ago now was thoroughly consulted over a two-year period," Power reportedly said.

"I'm confident that it's been through just about every test and every forum it could have been to get where it is today."

He pointed out that the disconnection provisions would only be introduced by regulation if the warning regime did not operate as it was intended, said the NZPA report.

"It's a complex area of law, it is finely balanced and it is not easy, but I think we've come to an arrangement which is satisfactory to both rights holders and ISPs."

Green Party Member of Parliament Gareth Hughes, who put forward a defeated amendment to the law that would have removed the right to disconnect users, said Tuesday the rapporteur's report "should be a wake-up call for the government."

"They need to heed his call that Internet access is a human right and ensure they will not enact Internet termination."

The law will come into effect in September and is to be reviewed after two years.