The Commerce Committee has reported back [PDF] on the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill. The good news is that they won't be immediately introducing disconnection from the internet as a penalty for file sharing. The bad news is that they will retain the option to introduce it at any time by Order-in-Council.
This is unacceptable. As I have already pointed out, disconnection is a disproportionate penalty. The internet is no longer a form of entertainment - it is as essential to everyday life as the telephone. Without it, we can't read the news, pay our bills, talk to our friends and family, or participate in society. Disconnection is thus an active denial of citizenship, akin to cutting out our tongues. We don't do it for scammers and spammers. We don't do the equivalent for telephone fraudsters. So why do it for file-sharers?
(The answer, of course, is that the victims of spammers and scammers and telephone fraudsters aren't a multi-billion dollar global industry which can splash around millions on lobbying. They're just ordinary people. But the law doesn't work for us - it works for the rich corporations instead).
This draconian and disproportionate punishment violates the Bill of Rights Act, not to mention all standards of justice and decency. Even if not immediately implemented, it has no place in our law.
