NZ recording industry pulls back on piracy chase

The New Zealand recording industry is pulling back its pursuit of pirates, peak music Recorded Music New Zealand general counsel Kristin Bowman told Stuff co.nz.

It is because despite the high cost of bringing infringers to justice, it considers the Copyright Tribunal’s penalties low.

Since the ’’Skynet’’ streamlined justice system kicked in, in January, only 17 infringers were taken to task. The maximum penalty for piracy is NZ$15,000 but the highest penalty so far was $914.35. So now the cases it plans to bring will be those which are high-offending enough for the Tribunal to be "a little gutsier", Bowman said.