(SV*)null
interpreting the void as SamV
The difference is, with a parking ticket you can challenge it before the punishment is "enforced", ie you pay it. Of course many won't, because they know they are guilty and there is evidence there, so they just pay it. The path of paying the fine is lower than the path of challenge so they take it and many change their behaviour.
I don't believe that copyright infringement is an offense as small as "stealing a bar of soap from a hotel" as the UK IT minister does, but I do think that the punishment method of the new law is arbitrary, and may represent a punishment not in accordance with the severity of the crime for many.
Inaction would be a mistake, I think. Why not bring the new law into line with other minor infringements, and modify it to prescribe that copyright holders may charge fines of up to, say, 5 or 10 times the RRP of the item(s) observed being shared. As well as this, the standards of evidence should be set such that they are "watertight" - to avoid those who would argue that it is impossible to prove anything, or who point out that various people have tricked the simple methods currently employed by the rights holders to "frame" innocent users and even networked printers.
This should give content owners the power to enforce their copyright on a blanket scale, and put ISPs back in the picture as neutral connection providers, like mail distributors or power providers. They will have to pass the fine notices on from the copyright holders to their customers, or be liable themselves.
Watertight evidence which can withstand court scrutiny would require one more technical item to be set up by ISPs. ISPs (which can be defined as holders of "netblocks" which are routable at well known peering locations or similar definition, should the current definition be deemed inadequate) must be able to provide certificates that data was exchanged between the rights holder and the internet endpoint. ie, a bit like a "receipt" for data transferred and a SHA-256 token to identify its content. This is not intrusive, like a wire tap, as it is only asking for a receipt for data that you were a party to. You will need some internet engineers to draft the mechanics of it, and implementation could take some months at best, but it is possible.
Please, I urge you as Communications and Information Technology Minister to take advice on this approach, and to have it ready as an amendment to the law. I believe it balances the rights much more appropriately than any of the other options being tabled.
(submitted to Steven Joyce via e-mail)