Hollywood’s secret swipe against Kiwi movie piracy
HOLLYWOOD has pointed the finger at New Zealand as a hotbed of internet piracy.
The accusations have flown in a secret submission to a government review in which the silver screen bigwigs of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) claimed nine top pirate websites were far more popular with Kiwis than in the US or UK.
The MPArepresents Walt Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios and Warner Bros.
But InternetNZ chief executive Jordan Carter questioned the evidence presented by theMPA – which was released by former Broadcasting Minister Amy Adams – saying it did not tally with piracy trends.
‘‘The site-ranking tool they cite isn’t a reasonable way to interpret flows of unlawful content and the comparison sites they choose aren’t like for like,’’ he said.
‘‘Piracy isn’t a big problem in New Zealand and continued new offers of innovative streaming and other content offerings will keep things moving in the right direction.’’
A fresh battle is looming on both sides of the Tasman this year over copyright reform and piracy, after Australia’s Productivity Commission released a report before Christmas suggesting sweeping changes to its copyright laws.
It has proposed a new broad right for consumers to make ‘‘fair use’’ of copyright works and recommended allowing Australian consumers to get around technological blocks that prevent them subscribing to overseas internet televisions services.
A scheduled review of New Zealand’s Copyright Act was delayed last year because of the possible implications of the TransPacific Partnership agreement. But Hollywood interests are concerned New Zealand could follow in the footsteps set out by Australia’s Productivity Commission. One of Hollywood’s concerns appears to be that a broad ‘‘fair-use’’ clause might make it easier for people to move copies of movies and other content they have legitimately bought to the cloud, making it more difficult for studios to identify and crack down on cases of outright piracy.