Thursday, March 19, 2009

Google Criticizes "Copyright Infringement" Takedown Procedures

According to Colin Jackon at Gen.nz, New Zealand’s section 92a of the copyright law “says that ISPs have to cut people off the Internet if a music company accuses them of copyright infringement. There’s no trial, no proof, and no accountability on the record companies to get it right.” Now PC World New Zealand writes (my emphasis):

Google has made a detailed submission to the Telecommunications Carriers Forum that heavily criticises the draft code of practice for ISPs in relation to section 92A of the Copyright Act [in New Zealand].

In its submission, Google notes that more than half (57%) of the takedown notices it has received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998, were sent by business targeting competitors and over one third (37%) of notices were not valid copyright claims.

As such, Google says “Section 92A puts users’ procedural and fundamental rights at risk, by threatening to terminate users’ internet access based on mere allegations and reverse the burden of proof onto a user to establish there was no infringement.”

PC World quotes Google saying that “Section 92A undermines the incredible social and economic benefits of the open and universally accessible internet, by providing for a remedy of account termination or disconnection that is disproportionate to the harm of copyright infringement online.”

[Via Boing Boing.]

Google Criticizes "Copyri ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (6)

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