$25 cost set for copyright complaints

Simon Power has announced:

Commerce Minister Simon Power today announced that internet service providers will be able to charge rights holders up to $25 for processing an allegation of copyright infringement.

The decision was made by Cabinet when considering technical regulations to underpin the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011, which comes into effect on 1 September.

“The Government decided that a fee of up to $25 fee was an appropriate compromise between what rights holders and the ISPs wanted.

“However, we will review that six months after the Act comes into effect to make sure it’s at the right level.

I’m pretty happy with that level, especially as RIANZ wanted $2. From an ISP perspective it might not be enough to cover costs (which is regrettable) but it is definitely set high enough to deter rights holders from filing tens of thousands of complaints a month, and swamping ISPs.

The “downside” of a relatively high fee is that is you do keep infringing and get found liable by the Tribunal, you’ll be ordered to pay the $25 costs per infringement notice plus the $200 fee for taking it to the Tribunal plus the cost of any actual works infringed.

The Cabinet Paper is here. Note that the paper talks of a $20 fee, which is what was recommended to them by the Minister. Cabinet increased it to $25, which is pleasing.

The fee will be reviewed after six months. This is useful, as by then ISPs should have some hard data on what the costs have been, and what the volume of notices has been.