Copyright Bill comes into play

Copyright Bill comes into play: Well, the New Zealand copyright amendment bill will be coming in very shortly, and by very shortly, I mean in seconds. The latest attempt to curtail the illegal downloading of copyrighted material has been met with controversy, outrage and also people pointlessly blackening their profile pictures in a futile attempt to fight against this inevitability. The question is: will this all work? In the short term: Sure, why not? This will probably decease the number of Internet users illegally downloading, due to fear of being met with the consequences, these now being a fine to upwards of $10,000, or one's Internet access being cut for a period of 6 months. In the long term: Undoubtedly no. The cost of maintaining surveillance on the large group of people downloading these copyright materials will be substantial and both ISPs and copyright holders will lose interest in maintaining a level required to effectively stop people from doing this. At the end of the day, this is all pointless; people are going to this content whether the copyright holders like it or not. - posted by Ciaran