Policy cannot ensure compliance with s92A

No amount of policy alone will ensure compliance with the Copyright Act (Section 92A)

Auckland, 23 February 2009 – NATCOM, a business managed fibre Internet provider has commented on what it sees as a core issue in the debate on the new provisions in the Copyright Act (Section 92A). NATCOM stresses that the industry needs a solution to help prevent the root cause of all the concern, copyright infringement.

NATCOM believes that no amount of policy alone will prevent a business’s Internet connection being terminated by law.

Frayne Cooke, CEO of NATCOM says his company is focussing on solutions to the question: even with a policy in place, how will that policy be policed? “Business Internet users must have a solution to help prevent the cause of problem in the first place.” NATCOM’s response has been the development and launch of its SLAM™ Firewall.

“The amendment comes into force in just a matter of days now and finally there is some industry and public debate over the ramifications. Many die-hard social network addicts are appalled at the prospect of industry controls over the abuse of copyright materials and many ISP’s are still in denial that the Act will actually enter law” says Cooke.

Steve Smith, NATCOM’s Chief Commercial Officer said “in life we often act without the knowledge of future ramifications that will be brought about by our acts; the advent of social networks and other peer- to-peer services, wonderful though they are, have led to significant material impacts to thousands of copyright holders around the globe. Clearly that is going to change and very soon, at least here in New Zealand.”

ISP’s are being asked within the Act to produce robust policy regarding copyright infringement. “The Telecommunications Carriers’ Forum (TCF) has published an excellent guide as to how ISP process should follow the Act, but that alone cannot adequately protect a business Internet connection from possible termination” says Smith.

NATCOM suggests all businesses consider the following questions:

1. Do your staff have unrestricted access to the Internet?

2. Is it possible that members of staff download material that might be considered protected by copyright, without knowledge or permission of the copyright owner?

3. Is that material stored on your network?

4. Is that material shared with other persons?

5. Do you keep details of infringements?

6. Do you have a clearly defined Internet policy?

7. Is that policy monitored and enforced?

8. Is that policy reflected in your employment contracts?

“In addition, it seems clear that a level of physical security must be employed” says Smith. NATCOM has just launched its SLAM™ Firewall. SLAM™, which stands for Service Level and Access Management, is a hardware and software product developed by NATCOM. Its primary purpose is to combat the ease of copyright infringement under the new copyright laws and in general provides a data management and reporting service so businesses can better understand how their Internet connection is performing and how it is being used.

Mr Cooke says “the driver for NATCOM in the development of its SLAM™ Firewall was in response to provisioning policy in line with the Act and our belief that written policy alone would not protect our customers or indeed our own business to the degree necessary.” A key element in the development of the appliance was the privacy and general security of the data routed through it. The SLAM™ Firewall utilises Deep Packet Inspection technology which is able to recognise various high risk protocols and sites, whilst respecting the actual data itself as being totally private.

“Several of the other larger equipment vendors have their own hardware based product, but cost and ongoing support make them suitable to only large corporate networks. NATCOM’s SLAM™ Firewall is scalable to meet the needs of small to medium and large enterprise.”

Although optimised to work with NATCOM’s Fibre Internet services, the SLAM™ appliance is also available to non-NATCOM Internet customers and can be plugged into any business Internet connection.

ENDS

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