5,000 Three Strikes

While the New Zealand government is set to introduce a three-warnings copyright law Sept. 1, one of its regulation consultants claimed that the country’s copyright owners send out 5,000 warning letters to file-sharing infringers per month.

Record labels, publishers and movie studios have to pay NZ$25 (US$21.64) to ISPs for processing each allegation of copyright infringement.

After three complaints about the infringer, rights holders can take the matter to the Copyright Tribunal for a fee of $200 ($173.12) each.

The Tribunal will decide what damages to decide for rights holders, the maximum penalty being $15,000 (US$12,984).

The $25 fee was hotly disputed with rights holders wanting it to be $2, and ISPs demanding $40 ($34.62). The government will reassess that figure six months after its implementation.