Lee Melissa: Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Lee Melissa: Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
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MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 I would like first of all to thank the member who just resumed her seat Jacinda Ardern for her admission that Labour got it wrong with section 92A. 
I rise to support the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill through its second reading. I recognise that the previous speaker referred to herself as a Pollyanna and I think a Green member called himself a geek. I will not go as far as that but I will follow in their footsteps and call myself creative. I will put myself in a little box like those members have. 
Ms Ardern has just made the admission that Labour got section 92A wrong. She went on to say that we should also do so. I am a little bit confused as to why we should do that. This National Government is trying to fix a problem that was created and caused by Labour and the Internet Blackout week in New Zealand was a result of the Labour bill the Labour law. This National Government decided not to enact it because there was an outcry over section 92A. We went to the public for consultation and this bill is the result the outcome of the consultation process the first reading and the select committee process which I have to say was quite long. 
I appreciate the Opposition’s support for this bill because I also struggled with this issue. I have come from the creative sector and I see the benefit in both sides of the argument. I know that there are some brand new creatives out there both singers and movie makers who struggle to get noticed and often put their creative movies or music online and it goes viral and ends up getting noticed. That is not quite the file sharing that we are talking about here but I ask members to hear me out. 
The Korean movie industry the huge Korean wave which earns billions of dollars came about as a result of viral file-sharing copyright infringements in other countries like China where people downloaded movies and copied DVDs and now it has become a humungous industry that makes a lot of money for Korea. Even in New Zealand I know that there was a Chinese students’ group that put their drama online because they could not get anybody to make it. They virally spread the news and were so successful that it was picked up by a channel and it even went to China. 
I see the benefit in promoting these creatives online and possibly supporting the file-sharing issue. But the industry needs protection. I have come from the sector. I do not know how many other members on the other side of the Chamber have had the same experience but as a fledgling screenwriter I know how long it takes to develop an idea come up with a script get that script to a producer and get funding for something to be made. It costs time and a lot of money for that process to reach fruition and for that movie or piece of music to be made. 
I know that Steve Chadwick talked about the copyright issue. The piracy issue is big but that is already protected. But this whole copyright file-sharing issue is not done unintentionally; it is done intentionally because we have something called the Internet. The development of fast Internet means we have a major problem on our hands. People download the software to share with their friends. It is not like me buying a DVD giving it to Steve Chadwick and saying I am sharing the DVD—I cannot do that. I can purchase a video and share it with a friend and I can buy a piece of music and share it with a friend. That is quite different from this. This is about people intentionally going to something like Torrent and downloading the file-sharing software intentionally knowing that they will infringe copyright. 
Katrina Shanks talked about little boxes on the table as a way of understanding how this works. Even though I worked in television even though I worked in the film industry I had no idea how this peer file-sharing thing worked. I am in that generation as well. I had to learn what this was about. It is incredible how they do it. They download the software and they put it up. There is Internet chat about it. Young girls and young boys teenagers—and I am not blaming the teenagers mind you—basically put up on a chat site a comment like: “Anyone know how to download the latest movie?”. I will not mention what it is. They start a chat line. They help each other to download movies that are not even released here in New Zealand. So they are breaching copyright and they do it through Internet file-sharing which should be illegal. I am very pleased that we have had to deal with this because apart from helping us understand what this issue is all about we will be able to monitor our children and our families and prevent them from breaking the rules. 
As I said this is very very different from getting a DVD and sharing it with a friend. I think it was a Maori Party member who talked about the fact that the recording industry has lost a lot of money. I know for a fact that from 2004 to 2009 the income the recording industry derived from sales actually halved. That was due to file sharing—through illegal copies being shared among friends. With the advent of faster Internet and with broadband becoming more available movie industries are also in major trouble. I support the bill and I look forward to the Committee stage as this debate continues. Thank you.