Hollywood takes aim Secret piracy lobbying revealed
NZ labelled a hotbed of illegal downloading in behind-the-scenes approach to Government, writes Tom Pullar-Strecker.
Hollywood studios painted New Zealand as a den of internet piracy in a submission to a government review that they tried to keep secret.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said in a confidential submission to a discussion document on ‘‘digital convergence’’ released by former Broadcasting Minister Amy Adams that nine international websites associated with piracy were far more popular in New Zealand than in the US or Britain.
For example, it said file-sharing site KickassTorrents was the 29th-most popular internet site in New Zealand in October 2015, when it only ranked 100th in the US and 258th in Britain.
The MPAA represents Walt Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios and Warner Bros.
The popularity of pirate sites in New Zealand highlighted the need for the Government to take into account the severity of ‘‘digital theft issues’’, it said.
InternetNZ chief executive Jordan Carter questioned the evidence presented by the MPAA, which he said did not tally with what it was hearing about 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,’’ he said. The MPAA’s lobbying appeared unsuccessful as a Digital Convergence Bill released by Adams last year did not address piracy, but Carter questioned the tactic of lobbying behind closed doors. ‘‘These policy debates are best in the open where ideas and evidence can be tested and critiqued by all,’’ he said. While the Culture and Heritage Ministry published almost all of the 48 submissions made to the digital convergence review on its website early last year, it withheld the MPAA’s submission at the request of the association. The ministry reconsidered that and supplied the submission with the agreement of the MPAA a year after first receiving it, after the Sunday StarTimes indicated it would appeal to the Ombudsman for its release.
The Ombudsman had previously sided against the blanket withholding of submissions made by commercial entities to government agencies during public consultations.
In 2015, the MPAA shut down a massive internet piracy operation and laid a multi-million dollar lawsuit against a young Auckland man who was running it from his suburban home.
The website enabled millions of people to download films illegally, and attracted 3.4 million viewers in one month.
The case against Yiftach Swery – an app and website developer – was settled out of court.
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 liberalisation of its copyright laws.
It has proposed a new broad right for consumers to make ‘‘fair use’’ of copyright works – which movie studios fear could complicate anti-piracy efforts.
Hollywood interests are also concerned New Zealand could follow in Australia’s footsteps when the Copyright Act is reviewed this year.