McGovern Online are very pleased to see that common sense has prevailed over the controversial NZ Copyright Amendment Act, Section 92a. We welcome the Government's decision to defer the commencement of Section 92A of the Copyright Act until March 27 and to suspend the Section if no agreement can be reached.

Section 92a was characterized by the Internet community in general , and the Creative Freedom Foundation in particular, as an unworkable attempt to to control the downloading of copyright protected content on the net, without acknowledgement or payment.

Like others, McGovern believed in the intent of the clause but totally disagreed with the proposed method – i.e. give rights holders, or more properly their representatives the apparent ability to insist that ISP’s suspend the internet connection of people they allege are copyright infringers without any due legal process.

Also of concern was the apparent looseness of the definition of ISPs which seemed to suggest that anyone who provided internet access were ISPs within the context of the clause. There was serious concerns that this provision would include small business owners, libraries and schools, and that as a result, they would lose their internet connections as a consequence of the behavior one one person.

The NZ Government's announcement that they have accepted concerns on the viability of the coming regime and have accordingly suspended the introduction of Sec 92a to allow the parties to negotiate a code of practice is also to be welcomed.

McGovern commends the Telecommunications Carrier Forum for their work in providing the parties with a draft code, and hopes that a successful framework can be agreed as soon as possible.

In the meantime, for the record, details on the issue from a press point of view are on the Scoop site here . The Creative Freedom Foundation have a record of the campaign here

One of the most successful parts of this whole affair was the local Internet Communities Black Out Campaign. The Black Out campaign was conceived at the recent Foo Camp. Paul Reynolds, from McGovern was invited to Foo and also took part on the campaign. His blog, People Points made its own contribution to the campaign.