Under the revised Copyright Act, ISPs and server operators must investigate internet piracy complaints and may be required to bar clients from the web. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Under the revised Copyright Act, ISPs and server operators must investigate internet piracy complaints and may be required to bar clients from the web. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Movie and music industry bosses have pulled back from a hardline approach and are belatedly considering a plan for an independent mediator to oversee protracted complaints between them and telcos.

The idea is that a mediator will be a go-between in protracted internet piracy complaints where copyright holders claim an illegal download, but it is denied by ISP customers.

The mediator plan might ease the tense relationship between the hard-nosed Hollywood-led approach and telcos disgruntled about policing copyright holders' property rights.

Internet freedom protesters marched on Parliament yesterday as record industry boss Campbell Smith and performers representative Anthony Healey talked with telcos about the mediator idea.

Under section 92a of the Copyright Act, which comes into force at the end of the month, ISPs and any company operating a server to staff has to investigate complaints about internet piracy such as illegal downloads of music, TV shows and movies. As it stands, the provider might have to take clients off the web.

Speaking during a break in the meeting, Healey said the mediator idea answered many of the concerns.

Healey - who represents the Australasian Performing Rights Association - said the furore over the new rules was overstated.

The copyright holders group - which is led by Hollywood's movie, TV and record industry - was not out to prosecute a teenager downloading the odd song off the internet, he said.

Ernie Newman - who represents the Telecommunications Users Association - says a "no-compromise" approach from copyright holders has led to New Zealand being one week out from a complex new regime and for the first time considering a legal mediation role.

HOLLYWOOD EYES

Until now, copyright holders - led by Smith of the Recording industry Association of New Zealand - have taken an aggressive approach, which worries Newman.

He says complaints will not be about a homegrown band but will be from electronically monitored equipment run by international media companies.

Local copyright holders were "mouthpieces" for an international campaign that had no interest in how it affected this country, he said.

South Pacific Pictures managing director John Barnett backs anti-piracy moves - he lost out dearly from pirated copies of the movie Sione's Wedding - though not on the internet.