Family Holloway

(crossposted from CreativeFreedom.org.nz)

When s92A was scrapped it was always said that it would be reviewed and that it was coming back. At the time Hon Simon Power said “While the government remains intent on tackling this problem, the legislation itself needs to be re-examined and reworked to address concerns held by stakeholders and the government. The government will begin a review to amend the section immediately to address areas of concern.”. The overview of the process and who’s involved, below…

Section 92A Review Process and Timeline
The Minister of Commerce, Hon Simon Power, has asked the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) to provide targeted stakeholders with a clear understanding of the process to review section 92A of the Copyright Act 1994.
The purpose of this note is therefore to update targeted parties representing ISPs, rights-holders and users on the proposed process which will guide policy development to deal with online copyright infringement. Please note that where dates have been provided, they are indicative only.

• MED officials are working closely with a Working Group of intellectual property and internet law experts to develop a set of proposals/questions for input from targeted stakeholders;

Apparently the working group includes Judge David Harvey, Andrew Brown QC from Russell McVeagh, Clive Elliott from Shortland Chambers, Susi Frankel from the Copyright Tribunal and Paul Sumpter from Chapman Tripp.

• It is anticipated that these stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide input over a three week period from July 2009;
• Following assessment of stakeholder submissions, MED officials will seek approval from Cabinet during August on the proposed policy to deal with online copyright infringement;
• It is anticipated that a Bill will be ready for introduction into the House during September or October;
• From October, the Bill will track through parliamentary processes including Select Committee. The parliamentary process is likely to take a minimum period of six months and will likely conclude in the first half of 2010.
• This process is intended to be thorough and will consider the concerns of rights-holder groups, ISPs and the public that have previously been raised with regard to section 92A. MED officials will be working to a number of guiding principles throughout this process to ensure:
• The scope of any legislation leading to the termination of internet accounts of repeat copyright infringers is explicit and takes into account issues of due process, practicality and enforceability;
• Terms used in legislation are clearly defined;
• The process leading to account termination is clear to all parties concerned.

We’ll have more analysis over the weekend.

(crossposted from CreativeFreedom.org.nz)

Techdirt report Michael Geist’s recent discovery that Business Software Alliance (BSA) statistics around piracy in Canada, masqueraded as fact, were in fact made-up: “In digging deeper into the questionable claims of the report by The Conference Board of Canada that was basically a cut and paste from various industry groups, Geist noticed that the report relied on some BSA data. So he asked for more info on how the BSA determined the “piracy” rate of software in Canada. How many people were surveyed? What was the methodology? In response, Geist found out that no one in Canada was surveyed, and BSA (and IDC who created the report) simply made an educated guess, assuming the piracy rates weren’t all that different than they were in past years. Yet this hunch, based on no actual data, is being used as a definitive source of piracy numbers in Canada? Even more noteworthy, both the BSA and The Conference Board report use these numbers to support the silly claim that Canada is somehow one of the worst offenders when it comes to supporting “piracy.”

Of course, questionable piracy statistics provided by industry groups are nothing new, in fact we’ve seen this happen in New Zealand before. In a draft report to the Australian Attorney General they were called “self-serving hyperbole”. Even with film production down 20.7% in 2008, the MPAA has reported a world wide 5.2% increase in box office profits last year.

With significant question-marks hovering over piracy statistics, before legislating to tackle a perceived problem one would hope that governments would conduct their own independent research to gain a more focused, accurate picture of the situation.

Of course illegal downloads occur, but with yet another example of fallible data on digital copyright infringement, we challenge legislators to question the statistics around piracy, and if possible to seek to obtain independent figures before legislating for a perceived scale of problem, rather than a definite one.

Those following the progress of the somewhat hypocritical legal battle between Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press over that wonderful image of Obama may be interested to hear that another artist has entered the debate. Artist Evan Roth has started an Intellectual Property Asshole Competition directed at Fairey and the AP by putting hand painted canvases of both Fairey’s Obama Hope poster and Mannie Garcia’s Associated Press photograph up for sale on his website, stating that “The first person to send me a cease and desist notice wins!”. In the words of techdirt “While we never think it’s a good idea to infringe for the sake of infringement, this ought to be fun to watch”….stay tuned!

Nic Sando’s comedy about the internet named Emissary is being performed in Wellington as part of this year’s New Zealand International Comedy Festival, but unlike most performances this one is open to being recorded and remixed under a Creative Commons license. In this article Nic explains why he chose the license and what he hopes it will achieve.

Be sure to check out his photoshoperies of Dylan Horrock’s comic too.

In 2004 author Cory Doctorow talked about DRM (transcript) to Microsoft. “I’m a science fiction writer. That means I’ve got a dog in this fight, because I’ve been dreaming of making my living from writing since I was 12 years old. Admittedly, my IP-based biz isn’t as big as yours, but I guarantee you that it’s every bit as important to me as yours is to you. Here’s what I’m here to convince you of: That DRM systems don’t work; That DRM systems are bad for society; That DRM systems are bad for business; That DRM systems are bad for artists; That DRM is a bad business-move for MSFT“. Read more about DRM.

(crossposted from CreativeFreedom.org.nz)

CFF Co-founder Matthew Holloway is speaking tonight at a Webstock Mini on the topic of illegal art in New Zealand: “Copyright law overlaps with art, free speech, and social commentary. A quick history and how we can make a better future.”

(Ha, I wonder if I can still get away with talking about myself in the third person when it’s my blog…)

(crossposted from CreativeFreedom.org.nz)

Michael Geist reports that EU officials involved in the ACTA negotiations are beginning to reveal their approaches. He says, “The Europeans are not prepared to go beyond existing EU law of any Internet provisions. This potential makes the European Parliament’s support to block a three strikes system important.”

(crossposted from CreativeFreedom.org.nz)

Hon Simon Power has called for submissions on ACTA saying that the negotiations are now focusing on “enforcement issues in the digital environment”. New Zealand’s Mark Harris has been following ACTA for some time now, calling for greater transparency and for the Ministry of Economic Development to clarify their stance considering that early ACTA drafts have been leaked online. ACTA may allow private companies to snoop on New Zealanders internet connections based only on accusations of copyright infringement, and for border officers to search laptops and ipods for files. Read more about ACTA, read over the previous New Zealand submissions, and consider making a submission of your own.

Techdirt reports “If you follow copyright issues, you’re no doubt aware of Danger Mouse. He’s the DJ who got quite a lot of attention a few years back for creating one of the very first mainstream mashups — mixing the Beatle’s The White Album with Jay-Z’s The Black Album to create the rather unique The Grey Album.” Since then DJ Danger Mouse has produced for Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkley. Due to ongoing copyright troubles he’s unable to release the new album, so he’s come up with a rather creative solution “the next album will be released as album artwork with a blank recordable CD. Yes, a blank CD-R. There is no music on it.” Download the music yourself and burn it.