US offered NZ help on copyright: Wikileaks
According to a diplomatic cable from anti-secrecy organisation Wikileaks, the United States offered to help New Zealand redraft its "three-strikes" copyright bill in 2009.
Following stalled negotiations on a controversial amendment to section 92a of New Zealand's Copyright Act, the US offered to step in and help expedite the legislation by rewriting the draft.
According to the 2009 cable, the US embassy met with New Zealand, pushing for a faster timeline for approval of the laws.
"We've proposed holding DVC[s] between NZ and US interlocutors to possibly help with drafting [section 92a]," the cable reads.
The US embassy reportedly offered assistance based on its experience instituting and enforcing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act since 1998.
"US agencies have the benefit of 10 years worth of experience in enforcing the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act that may serve useful to New Zealand officials in their effort to implement section 92A," the cable said.
However, this isn't the first time that the US has expressed interest in the copyright enforcement undertakings of New Zealand.
A cable penned in 2005 purports that the US supported a joint task force to "fight music piracy".
"The project would be aimed not only at the rising piracy problem in New Zealand, but also in Pacific Island nations including Fiji, the Cook Islands and Samoa, whose governments have limited ability and resources to combat piracy," said the 2005 cable.
Attached to the cable was also a brief operating budget for the task force, which included costings for four staff salaries, operating expenses and start-up costs.
The controversial Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Bill, finally passed last month, gives an internet service provider (ISP) the power to disconnect a user from the internet after three warnings of copyright infringement. The bill also gives a copyright-holder the ability to take a claim to the new Copyright Tribunal, where a fine of $15,000 can be handed down to an account-holder.
The section 92a amendment to the Copyright Act also proposed disconnection from the internet by an ISP if a user was caught infringing. The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Bill was hastily passed into law last month to the protests of anti-copyright movements in New Zealand.