He happens to be the MP for my electorate, too...never been too happy with the bloke but this takes the cake.
To the Hon. Simon Power -
I am appalled at the decision to pass the Copyright Amendment Act under urgency this week, and even more so at the retention of the account termination provision which has been left in the bill. Your championing of this measure shows a callous disregard for due process at the individual level and for democratic process at the parliamentary level. The errors committed in passing this legislation, which amounts to a 20th-century solution for a 19th-century business model faced with a 21st-century problem, are grave and will be difficult to undo.
Points which need to be understood in this matter are as follows:
1) Copyright infringement is a civil matter. By placing ordinary citizens under threat of onerous and disproportionate consequences for alleged offences, this legislation criminalises an action which should rather be resolved in civil proceedings and places ISPs and Crown authority in the position of acting as enforcers for large media and publishing interests. I need not remind you that these interests are nearly all overseas, so in essence you are ceding another piece of New Zealand sovereignty at the behest of international lobbyists.
2) Internet access is ubiquitous enough to be considered a utility. Most households rely on their internet connectivity for at least some portion of their daily communications, including email, voice and access to work, school, commercial and public services. If you would have us believe that there is logical justification for termination of internet connectivity as a consequence of infringement, then you need to be able to make a similar case for cutting off someone's water, phone, power and post, as any of these could further someone's ability to break the law.
3) The move to pass the bill under urgency is cynical and undemocratic. The far-reaching implications of a law which could quite conceivably deprive New Zealanders of their ability to communicate via commonplace and ordinary means in the face of allegations by foreign content providers require a full public airing and transparency. Sneaking it in amongst the firewood signals your unwillingness to have an honest debate about what is actually at stake here and shows once again how this Government uses parliamentary process to act in a unitary fashion. The cover provided by the ongoing Canterbury putsch is only too convenient.
I reside in the Rangitikei electorate and have never felt so inadequately represented (or so ably misrepresented). Please, Mr Power, leave the Government now before you do any further damage to our country.
