The anger and activism at a rule in New Zealand requiring Internet service be terminated upon a mere accusation of copyright infringement is growing.
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Meta
It would of course be far more ethically enlightened to abolish copyright entirely.
For such an inherently unethical suspension of cultural liberty one should not be surprised that those corporations who would continue exploiting it, would have no scruples in demanding the ability to penalise those they accuse, without needing to show evidence that their privilege had been infringed.
After all, if corporations are privileged above human beings, why not consider the former’s commercial interests superior to the latter’s rights?
It would not be in a corporation’s commercial interests to accuse without good cause…
Download only media that is copylefted, public domained or free as in beer. Problem solved.
Looks like activists down under (is NZ down under or just Australia) also, like Lessig and USA activists exaggerate to create fear (like Bush?) to stir up emotions,
The exact law (and isn’t Lessig a lawyer?) states that they only have to have a POLICY, under what conditions, to terminate REPEAT copyright offenders.
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2008/0027/latest/DLM1122643.html
Thanks for helping spread the word Mr Lessig,
Hi folks, it’s Matthew Holloway here from the Creative Freedom Foundation
@Steve Baba:
The analysis that this calls for punishment before a trial is agreed upon by RIANZ (equivalent of RIAA) and the ISPs.
If you want to learn more read,
http://www.publicaddress.net/default,5693,the_public_bad.sm#post5693
http://www.nzcpr.com/weekly167.htm
http://www.nzcpr.com/guest133.htm
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2009/02/why_is_national_taking_the_heat_for_a_problem_they_did_not_cause.html
And of course
http://creativefreedom.org.nz/s92.html
http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html
Protecting copyright though Internet service does not sound like the best idea to me, but New Zealand does seem like a nice small place to try it out. If it fails, no big lost except to a few kiwis. If it succeeds, it could be tried in larger countries. This testing of different ideas is an argument against one world government/policy everywhere (credit to Mancur Olson).
“The analysis that this calls for punishment before a trial “
I would assume, don’t know for sure, that even in New Zealand the rule of law overrules any non-judicial system and one can request a trial if one goes out and hires a lawyer.
Just as if you don’t like that PayPal refunded or refused to refund your money, you go to small claims court or hire a lawyer. Of course it’s not easy or cheap to go to court, especially with a lawyer, but it beats having to go to court facing civil or criminal charges.
@Steve Baba: *WOW*, you sound like a really compassionate guy. Were you raised by a gang of Columbian Drug Lords? Dear God!
@Matthew
Give ’em hell guys. And remember our US Boston Tea Party.
‘The Boston Tea Party is known around the world and has been inspirational to other noted activists and reform leaders. For example, Erik H. Erikson records in his book “Gandhi’s Truths” that when Mahatma Gandhi met with the British viceroy in 1930 after the Indian salt protest campaign, Gandhi took some duty-free salt from his shawl and said, with a smile, that the salt was “to remind us of the famous Boston Tea Party.”‘
Don’t underestimate the power of the visual metaphor. How about a short length of broadband cable (coax) around each demonstrator’s neck fashioned to represent a noose?
Steve Baba wrote “New Zealand does seem like a nice small place to try it out. If it fails, no big lost except to a few kiwis.”
It’s just bad luck if you are born a kiwi, right?
Aotearoa/NZ has long been viewed as an ‘experiment’ by neocolonialists, using Steve Baba’s ratioanale.
Someone above said:
I wish I could share your optimism, but these laws are more about eliminating economic competition than they are about artist’s rights. The industry pushing these laws has a long history of just that kind of anti-competitive behavior, and wishes to return to “the good old days” of broadcast that gave them power, wealth and control. Technology has turned against them so they resort to increasingly draconian laws to maintain their position. Copyright to them is a weapon of control.
Universal access to knowledge is the prize we must all demand. Mr. Lessig, I admire your honest efforts to reform copyright and fight government corruption. If you fail at your later task, however, the world will be better off without copyright. Napster created the world’s greatest music library but it was only the beginning. Given network freedom, people will create the greatest public library ever known. Some commercial works may vanish but the world will be a much richer place than it was under broadcast monopolies. All we have to do is let people use their networks and computers to share without fear and they will. Everything that prevents the creation of this great public resource is a crime.
The NZ-ers and Australians are enacting these laws because they think the USA has these laws and they think that the only way to avoid a ‘trade war’ with the USA is to enact matching laws.
However, I do not believe that the USA has any such laws. The USA has a long and proud tradition … I think of Rosa Parkes and her bus ticket allowing her to sit wherever she likes on the bus … of libertarianism, equality, and the public interest of challenging unjust decisions which stand in the way of progress and the ‘business of business’ ?
Do you think, Lawrence, that you could tell those in power in NZ that the USA doesn’t have such laws ? I’m sure they won’t listen to me … I have no special communication channel … but they might listen to you.
I see you’re selling tickets for a performance. Businesses with ‘creative service content’ are thriving in the Internet era; businesses with ‘creative asset content’ are suffering. The logical response is to increase the service content in what you sell.
A performance is a service ? Way to go !
Chris Ward asks, “that you could tell those in power in NZ that the USA doesn’t have such laws ?” However, New Zealand politicians would be hard pressed to believe that the US is not going in a similar direction.
I refer you to the Wired article about the RIAA plan for getting ISP’s to disconnect users: Top Internet Providers Cool to RIAA 3-Strikes Plan and to the report about the proposed SAFETY Act, which was floated in both the House and Senate on Thursday: Feds Propose Storing Internet User Data for 2 Years.
The New Zealand Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 may have been a test-run by the global recording industry associations, to test the waters. Having succeeded in persuading NZ politicians that economic survival depends on controlling society it’s much easier to convince other governments. After all, if it can happen in a country that is, according to the BSA, one of the three lowest in the world for software piracy, it can happen anywhere.
@Baba – Thanks for the clarification of our guinea pig status!
@Chris Ward – in fact our s92A arrived on a boat from the US via Australia. But, for various reasons, I think we have ended up with the worst of all worlds. See http://www.geekzone.co.nz/juha/6270
It’s been delayed in NZ, but now it’s popping up in Ireland where the largest ISP has decided to dsconnect on accusation.
It’s been delayed in NZ, but now in Ireland the largest ISP is disconnecting on accusation, so now there’s an Irish #blackout