'Skynet' downloading law comes in to force tonight (August 10)

[rustyrobot]

Just a heads up...

"The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act comes into force from September 1. But, from tomorrow, breaches started counting towards the three strikes regime - although infringement notices could not be issued until next month."

So if you aren't careful you could have your first fine ready and waiting for you on September 01.

Anyone sussed out a workable alternative to torrents?

Cue: discussion about morals/ethics of illegal downloading

[Usarka]

So does this mean if you have 3 infringements before your first notice that you are out?

Or is it three notices?

[Oakie]

Cue lots of people reducing their now unnecessary broadband allowance? I wonder if the ISPs actually take a hit as a result.

[Oakie]

So does this mean if you have 3 infringements before your first notice that you are out?

Or is it three notices?

3 warnings I think.

[The Everlasting]

Cue lots of people reducing their now unnecessary broadband allowance? I wonder if the ISPs actually take a hit as a result.

Yeah I would say they are going to lose a lot of money in the long run.

[steve_t]

Anyone sussed out a workable alternative to torrents?

http - sites like rapidshare etc

[Ronin]

Meh, the can't monitor 'all' Torrents.

[bogan]

yeh http is the easiest, or private tracker torrents, or VPN to a seed box overseas...

[Oakie]

I have a mate in Telecom. He'll hook me up with a safe way in due course. Not that I'm a big downloader anyway. Two or three a month and more often than not just movies for #1 grandaughter.

[Latte]

alt.binaries if you've got the patience to learn the ropes, and have a decent ISP.

Encrypted Trackers / Torrent Sites and a proxy to hide behind should help with 99% of Torrents - at the end of the day it'll only be the latest stuff Hollywood are monitoring.

Neighbours Wireless if you're lucky, and you don't like them.

Or bribe the IT Geek at work with beer to bring his USB Drive full of movies/tv in every month or so.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

http://www.3strikes.net.nz/

https://www.facebook.com/3strikesNZ

[Grasshopperus]

You can pay ~$10 per month for a VPN account to some Scandinavian country and then do your torrenting through that.

I hope that the first person to get stung by this takes it to the courts and gets a nice precedent set against it.

IP address != a person

[riffer]

Compare the situation to the Adidas fiasco with rugby jerseys.

Imagine this:

Adidas sell jersey in NZ for $220. Jersey is for sale online overseas for $140.

People complain.

Adidas shuts down the access to NZers.

You buy an All Blacks jersey from overseas website, got it sent to a mate in Australia and then mailed to you.

Adidas successfully prosecute you for violating the rules of who can buy what where and how.

Not much different is it?

Remember folks, stealing removes the original. Downloading/copying makes a copy of the original, leaving the original still intact.

This is also very similar to what happened when Gutenberg's printing press first became available and the masses were given access to Bibles. The Church went mental!

[Paul in NZ]

The Church went mental!

Not strictly fair - the 'church' was mental right from the start....

[george formby]

Meh! I own an interweb cafe & have asked a few questions. It would seem that the new laws are pretty unworkable & it's only the likes of Sony, Warner Bros etc who will be trying to monitor downloads. And that will predominantly be new releases.

Software is available to spot these lurkers, you can effectively tell them to eff off online if you use peer to peer sites. I also use an offshore proxy if I'm being nefarious. A spin off from this will be "secure" torrents & sites taking the web back to it's original design purpose, bits of information scattered all over the place.

I rarely download stuff but do stream & watch on telly. Nothing they can do about it. I'm currently watching BBC1, legally..