Comment Re:Yeah, here's a winner: (Score 2) 384
Actually, we pretty much got screwed here. Quite a lot like PATRIOT got jammed through in the post 911 environment, actually. National figured out they had a wonderful opportunity with the CHC earthquakes and used the state of emergency powers (intended to streamline govt during those sorts of situations and respond as required to real emergencies) and instead rammed through unpopular stuff. They tried to put through another copyright bill about 3-odd years ago but it went through the normal review process, and the protest machine got going and neutered the worst of it. This time around they used the state of emergency powers to push it through with so little time that effective protests simply weren't possible.
Naturally the best solution now would be to vote the bastards out, but we still suffer from the same problem the US does, apathy looks likely to rule the day in this November's election.
Amusingly enough, the new law has one ironic effect. Before, infringement notices to ISPs generally got passed on to the offending user with a don't-be-bad note. The new law has a provision that the ISP has the right to charge for the time this takes them to research. In most cases this now means the ISP, upon receiving the infringement notice, turns around and invoices the complainant $25 before going any further (and as the complainants are usually mostly automated scripts, it mostly seems to end there). Ironically enough, at least in the short term, it probably means *less* punters getting infringement notices, and more costs to the "rights holders" for pursuing the process. In some ways a bit of a phyrric victory.