Google defends users' rights in New Zealand

Google is defending users rights in response to New Zealand's proposed section 92A amendments.

Statistics provided by Google suggest that the erosion of users rights is occurring in a multitude of ways at the intersections of business and communications technologies. The ease with which allegedly infringing uses are surfaced, and unsubstantiated takedown notices issued for the purpose of advancing a commercial position demonstrates the perils of an information culture oriented around restrictive interpretations of copyright and intellectual property law.

PCWorld reports that:

In its submission, Google notes that more than half (57%) of the takedown notices it has received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998, were sent by business targeting competitors and over one third (37%) of notices were not valid copyright claims.

As such, Google says "Section 92A puts users’ procedural and fundamental rights at risk, by threatening to terminate users’ internet access based on mere allegations and reverse the burden of proof onto a user to establish there was no infringement."