With effect yesterday, a new law comes into effect here that introduces penalties for people detected downloading copyrighted material off the internet…

Driving home from Wellington last night, I was listening to Radio Live as I do until I find the headphones for my MP3 so I can go back to my Audible books – still bracing myself to carry on listening to the current one with George Friedman prattling on about how Turkey, Mexico and Poland are the next generation of regional powers…Anyway, of course, this new law – which is no surprise as it was well socialised before becoming law – was the hot topic of discussion, as it was on breakfast TV yesterday morning…

It amazes me how InternetNZ and TUANZ can blatantly bleat about how unfair it all is that current international copyright law does not allow free downloading of copyrighted content and how copyright is all just one big conspiracy by US interests (ho-hum…yawn) to maintain the current outdated copyright system that expects that users might actually have to pay for copyrighted product…

Disinformation was rampant from both InternetNZ and TUANZ but the simple bottom line is that both need to ante up and accept that illegal access to copyrighted material, even under the pseudo-glamour of piracy, is nothing more than plain and simple, black and white THEFT!!! Just the same as hopping a fence and helping themselves to stock and produce just because there is no big sign written in geek that says ‘Private Property’; or bowling into someone’s house because they left the front door open and again just helping themselves…

The reason that they are all worried is because the Government has introduced some quick hefty penalties – in fairness, with a graduated system of warnings – for offending account holders…up to $15,000 per offence – don’t want a $15k fine? Then DON’T STEAL, you THIEVING geeks…!!!!

Worried that your neighbour will tap into your wireless and download copyrighted material? Then you are too dumb to have an internet account…

Worried that your kids will earn you a $15k fine? They will probably find a way to do this anyway – at least illegal downloads don’t involve fire, explosives or fast cars…

Worried that your employees will abuse the work account? Introduce individual accounts and police them like you should be doing anyway…

Laziness and stupidity are no excuses for THEFT.

Want to see the latest series of Castle, Justified, Thunderbirds, etc before it arrives here? Either breakaway from the box and get a life or buy it from Amazon et al – YOU LOSERS!

It sickens me that the me-me-me generation just don’t get that there are no freebies and that there is this thing called work that means to get get money to buy you things…the internet does not = Notting Hill style help yourself…I’ve been around enough activities creating intellectual property for long enough to have a healthy respect for those who create and nothing but contempt for those who steal be it with a brick through the window or a dodgy file sharer somewhere in Eastern Europe…

In other news

Happy Feet the Emperor Penguin {PDF: Penguin Happy Feet becomes a Wellington celebrity] is off home again. This was a bigger national story than a pensioner who laid dead in his flat for over a year.

The cost of the Christchurch earthquakes has almost doubled to just over $7billion – to counter this the government has invented discovered significant oil and gas under the southern ocean…

Teams for the Rugby World Cup have started to land this week – gee, I hope there is a ‘not-rugby’ channel for the next six weeks….