Three Strikes and You’re Out: Implications for Employers in New Downloading Law

The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011 is now in force, putting any employer who provides internet access to employees at risk of a possible $15,000 fine.  The much discussed penalty of six months internet suspension (which would be crippling for many businesses) is not currently in force and is to be reviewed.
 

The Act provides a "three strikes" regime against illegal downloading and file sharing.  For those among us who glaze over when IT types start talking about "file sharing" and "peer to peer networking (P2P)" , the end result of it is that many people are used to downloading their favourite music, TV shows and movies without any payment needing to take place, potentially in breach of copyright.  If you see names such as bittorrent, utorrent, vuze, gnutella, kazaa, limewire, frostwire or shareaza on work computers, you have cause for concern.  As well as exposing your computer system to external access, this use puts businesses at risk of a fine under the new regime.
 

We recommend an audit of all computers in order to delete any offending applications, and an addendum to your internet use policy to make clear that illegal file sharing or downloading may constitute serious misconduct for an employee.  Suggested wording here .