Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011
Act of Parliament in New Zealand
The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011 is an Act of the Parliament of New Zealand which amends the Copyright Act 1994.
The law became known informally as "Skynet" after National MP Jonathan Young compared the Internet to Skynet, the artificial intelligence network from the Terminator franchise, in the parliamentary debates on the then bill.
Legislative history
The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill 2010, or Bill 119–1, was introduced to parliament on 23 February 2010. The Bill had its first reading and was referred to Commerce Committee on 22 April 2010. On 3 November 2010 the Commerce Committee reported on the Bill, then Bill 119–2. On 12 April 2011 the Bill had its second reading, committee of the whole House and third reading. The Bill received royal assent on 18 April 2011 and became an Act of Parliament.
The Bill was passed "under urgency".
Amendments to Copyright Act 1994
The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011 repeals section 92A of the Copyright Act 1994. Section 92A was enacted by section 53 of the Copyright (New Technologies and Performers Rights) Amendment Act 2008 and would have required Internet service providers (ISPs) to adopt a process for disconnecting the internet access of subscribers suspected of repeat copyright infringement.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011” as act of Parliament in New Zealand. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as act of Parliament in New Zealand. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 8, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5169207. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2011, 1994, 2010 and 2008.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011 primary sources, Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011 archive and Copyright research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act 2011” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.