TANGLED WEB: The Federation Against Copyright Theft (NZFact) has used Rhys Darby to front a promotional videos aimed at combating internet piracy.

United States movie studios have scored a coup against internet rights advocates by recruiting irreverent comedian Rhys Darby to front a promotional video on internet piracy.

The promo is being made to prime the public ahead of a controversial change to copyright law in September.

Tony Eaton, chief executive of the Federation Against Copyright Theft (NZFact), said the 10 minute DVD would be distributed free to all New Zealand schools and online in August.

It is part of an education campaign by the federation in the run-up to the law change, which will see computer users face fines of up to $15,000 if they are caught three times downloading pirated material. NZFact is owned by the US' Motion Picture Association.

The public relations offensive comes as rights holders and telecommunications companies intensify their stand-off over a key unknown of the new copyright regime; the price that copyright holders will have to pay internet providers to send out infringement notices to consumers under the "three strikes" regime.

Mr Eaton said NZFact had been keen for Mr Darby to front its anti-piracy campaign to promote a "softer more relevant image" and because of his personality.

"He says a few quirky jokes."

The DVD features the Kiwi comedian hosting a discussion with six New Zealanders, including a make-up artist, a director and a theatre owner, about the issues they had faced as a result of piracy.

Asked whether Mr Darby's anti-authoritarian, subversive image might help counter concerns that the new copyright regime was the product of powerful, faceless corporations, Mr Eaton said, "you said it, I thought it".

2degrees would not comment on whether it had any concerns the campaign might reduce the appeal of Mr Darby among its target demographic. The comedian has featured prominently in television advertisements for the mobile network.

The law change, known as Section 92A, is designed to discourage people from accessing pirated movies and music through file-sharing services, such as BitTorrent.

It has been criticised by internet advocates who say it leaves the onus on people accused of piracy to prove their innocence and has spawned the creation of a new political party, New Zealand's Pirate Party, which hopes to contest the November election and repeal the legislation.

From September, rights holders such as movie studios or recording labels or their representatives, will be able to force internet providers to pass on infringement notices to customers who they believe they have caught accessing pirated material.

On the third warning, rights holders will be able to make internet providers pass the customer's details to the Copyright Tribunal, which will be able to impose fines.

Rights holders already have systems in place to unearth the internet-protocol addresses of people engaged in illegal file sharing – the addresses are a unique number assigned to each internet connection. But without the law change they have had no easy means of linking that activity to an individual.

The Economic Development Ministry has been consulting on the fees rights holders would need to pay internet providers to send infringement notices and Mr Eaton said that was the "$64,000 question".

NZFact said in a submission to the ministry that it believed at least 200,000 offences were being committed against its members each month by Kiwi internet users. It did not believe rights holders should bear any of the costs internet providers incurred passing on infringement notices to customers, but if they had to, that should be no more than the cost of a "postage stamp".

The country's peak telecommunications industry body, the Telecommunications Carriers' Forum, called in its submission for a fee of about $40 per notice.

It said that based on overseas experience, internet providers might need to send out more than a million infringement notices a year. It warned they might not have enough time to get the necessary systems in place by September "no matter how hard they try".

NZFact said it believed internet providers were "grossly exaggerating" their costs.

The fee issue is a double-edged one for consumers. Although higher fees would lead to fewer infringement notices being issued and therefore fewer fines, consumers are likely to be required to reimburse the fees if fined by the Copyright Tribunal. That means higher fees would also mean higher fines.

NZFact said the Copyright Tribunal should impose "meaningful damage and deterrent penalties" against copyright infringers.

InternetNZ said in its submission that it struggled to see why rights holders should be allowed to profit in cases where people pirated works that they had chosen not to sell in New Zealand but that they did sell overseas.