I think many people, not just New Zealanders were aware of changes last year regarding New Zealand law and internet piracy. Legislation was passed that now means an accusation of copyright infringement, regardless of the circumstances, could potentially lead to being banned from the internet and fined 15,000 dollars. Though many times these laws are set in place to ‘scare’ individuals and are very seldom enforced except in the cases of large filesharing sites, this is not the case. A fellow blog writer from New Zealand said that a personal friend of hers had his computer seized and paid a hefty fine for piracy.
Still, this article comes as no surprise – people are still unaware of just how much the government knows about what we do on the internet. Though this particular writer is talking about New Zealand, in most parts of the world, we don’t think much about what Google, Facebook, and other social network or membership sites know about us or what they do with our private information. Privacy online is a hot topic these days, and with legislation like ACTA, CISPA, and HADOPI and other laws in the works, the future doesn’t look so bright.
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