Such a regime is already provided in the Bill, the organisation says, as the first stage in the suggested "graduated response" system. This goes on to involve the Copyright Tribunal and courts in penal measures. The legislation should be changed to stop at the first stage, InternetNZ says.

If the committee decides a graduated response regime is needed, it should not include termination of a repeat offender's internet account, it says. Apart from that, the procedure as currently suggested -- if there must be one -- is "acceptable". Some attention is, however, needed to the definitions of ISP and file-sharing, to avoid punishing innocent parties and their activities.

The submission appends a detailed analysis of the bill by law firm Lowndes Jordan, which was presented at InternetNZ's public meetings last month.