Pirates unfazed by law

Rotorua downloaders aren't worried about a new copyright act.

The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act comes into force tomorrow and is designed to prevent illegal file sharing of internet users.

Copyright owners now have the ability to send evidence of alleged infringement to internet service providers (ISP), who will then send up to three infringement notices to the account holder. If the warnings are ignored, the copyright owner can take a claim to the Copyright Tribunal and the tribunal can make awards of up to $15,000 against the account holder.

The law also allows courts to suspend your internet account for up to six months, though this penalty will not be in force at first.

The Daily Post spoke to several people who admitted downloading music, movies and games, most of whom said the new legislation was unlikely to change their habits.

One Rotorua resident, who didn't want to be identified, said he often downloaded movies.

"It doesn't really worry me," he said.

"I will continue to download."

The man said there were millions of people who took part in illegal downloading every day.

"I am a small fish in the big pond of downloading," he said.

"If the movie industry was going to go broke because of it, I might think twice, but it isn't. If I like the movie I download I would probably go and buy it."

Another man who spoke to The Daily Post said downloaders would be able to find ways around the new legislation.

"It is on a three-strike system so when I got my first strike I would probably change internet service providers," he said.

"I don't think it would change many people's habits."

Need a Nerd operations manager Bill Brown said the legislation wouldn't mean much to people who were already actively downloading illegally.

"If you don't have the copyright for what you are downloading, it is illegal," he said.

"This new legislation means people have more powers to track what you are doing."

Mr Brown said people in house-share situations needed to be cautious of others using their internet connection.

"You basically can't control anything if people have access to your internet," he said.

"You wouldn't be able to prevent people from using your internet to illegally download. My advice would be, trust the people you share your internet with."

He said it would be wise to ensure everyone's name was on the internet account.

Mr Brown said the legislation was confusing for a lot of people.

He said people who were technically savvy could probably find a way around the legislation.

"There are a number of steps people could take to prevent being found and a lot of those are legal," he said.

"It doesn't seem like it would have too much of an affect on those who are technically savvy."

MORE INFO: 3strikes.net.nz