According to the new section, a copyright holder can issue an infringement notice saying someone has pirated their content and the Copyright Tribunal will accept that as fact.
Instead of plaintiffs needing to prove copyright infringement took place, Internet subscribers will now have to defend themselves with the assumption that they are guilty unit proven innocent. Current legislation allowed offenders three strikes before having their Internet accounts terminated for illegal file sharing, but now they can be fined up to $15,000.
Legal experts in the U.S. have said that it’s difficult to prove a file wasn’t downloaded — and foreign companies have inserted their influence into the New Zealand government.
Britain, France and several other nations have embraced controversial three-strike policies that lead repeat file sharers to be booted off the Internet.
French file sharers have already found ways to avoid detection when sharing files and file sharing still runs rampant in the country and across the E.U.