New Zealand Copyright (New Technologies and Performers' Rights) Amendment Bill Opponents

To the Honorable MP Judith Tizard.

We, the undesigned New Zealand citizens, are shocked to read that you have sponsored an amendment to the Copyright Act that, in some ways, mirrors the United States DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). The DMCA has been a colossal failure, with global corporations using it to bully, threaten and extort money from legitimate consumers, while it does very little to stop digital piracy. In essence, the DMCA is more about keeping the entertainment industries current business model valid, than protecting these companies from digital pirates.

Providing carte blanche protection to DRM installed by the entertainment industry is a massive mistake. Not only does DRM-infected media frequently not run on older equipment, in many cases it also fails to run on brand new equipment. The majority of shops will not offer a refund to customers in this situation, because the media still technically works. If the amendments to the Copyright Act sponsored by you were put in place, you are essentially forcing a multitude of legitimate customers to perform an illegal act (circumventing the DRM on the media) so that they can watch or listen to the content that they legally purchased. Knowing this, many consumers will be loathe to buy legitimate media in the first place, as simply downloading the content illegally is a lot easier and cheaper.

To put it simply DRM does not work. This has been proven over and over again. However the entertainment industry seems to believe that DRM will work, if they sue enough people who say it doesn't. Researchers, scientists and security specialists have all been silenced by the DMCA because it does not encourage people to create secure, convienient ways of storing digital material. Instead, it makes it illegal to point out that DRM is a broken, antiquated system easily bypassed by any user with a basic knowledge of computers.

Worse than this, DRM installed by the Sony BMG music corporation onto hundreds of thousands of its music cds violated the privacy and security of computer users, by installing what is known as a rootkit onto their computer. Rootkits are more commonly seen in computer viruses, as they purposefully hide their presence from the user and open massive security holes. The Sony BMG rootkit did just this, enabling hackers, viruses and other malware free access to normally secure Windows-based computers. This DRM malware was not mentioned on the CD and Sony BMG have been and are still involved in legal proceedings regarding this gross violation of the users rights.

On the third paragraph of the Copyright Amendment Bill you state:

"The key principle that guides copyright reform in New Zealand is the enhancement of the public interest - copyright law must benefit New Zealand as a whole..."

I, the undersigned New Zealand citizen , do not believe that this bill serves the public interest, but rather the interests of corporate executives trying to maintain their old business model. With this in mind I would ask that you stop listening to the entertainment industry and start listening to the millions of people in New Zealand who want to listen to music, watch movies and generally use legally purchased content without the interference of the government they have elected. This act will do nothing to stop digital piracy, however it will inconvenience and potentially bankrupt thousands of New Zealanders, as the US entertainment industry has used the DMCA as a cover for suing "criminals" who download a few songs from the internet.

Many thanks for your time and I sincerely hope you will reconsider some of the elements of the bill so that they truly serve the New Zealand public, rather than pandering to the entertainment industry.