coffee.geek.nz

1. new copyright act proposed
2. select committe talks to stake holders, removes section 92 (disconnection if accused) from copyright act.
3. final (3rd) reading of copyright act, section 92 has mysteriously reappeared, and is voted into law (only greens and maori party voted no).
4. internet industry concerns lead to delaying section92a until 28th February 2009
5. copyright act comes in effect on 1st November 2008 (including section 92c, which is more draconian than s92a)
6. government change, National government announces no intention to stop section 92a.
7. Monday last week (16feb): #blackout protest starts.
8. Blackout protesters arrive at parliament, presents petition signed by 10,000 including 4,000 artists.
9. Monday 23rd: hundreds of New Zealand website take down their whole website in protest.
10. Monday 23rd: Prime minister announces s92a delayed again until 27th March.

... and now you're up to date.

Submissions on the TCF code are due on the 6th of March. I personally think the TCF code is a red herring, and feels more like an agreement between some large media companies to not inflict lawsuits on some large ISPs if they adhere to the code. It won't necesarily protect you or your ISP when accusations (and threats of lawsuits against your ISP) come from copyright holders who are not in agreement with the TCF code.

There are so many fronts on which the "freedom" of the internet is under attack in my own country, neighbouring countries, and elsewhere.

Here in New Zealand a new copyright act went into effect on 1st November. The most controversial clause has been delayed until 28th February. This clause says that an ISP must have a policy of disconnecting anyone repeatedly accused of copyright infringment. ...

That's accusation only. There's no oppourtunity to defend yourself, no recourse for reconnection, and there's no penalty for false accusations. If you want someone off the internet you need only repeatedly accuse them of copyright infringement ("repeatedly" has legal precidents to mean 3 times). Aparently file sharing is so bad you don't even get a trial (can they not see where that logic leads?). Even pedaphiles get a trial before they are considered guilty and punished. I could not continue my occupation if i was disconnected.

There's also that great treaty called "ACTA" - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which on the surface is defending against fake prada handbags, but also fake baby prams (won't someone please think of the children!).. and fake medicines. I'm unsure if they mean cheap generic medicines that infringes patents, or if they mean dangerous medicines that aren't what they say on the labels -- but regardless, the Music and Film industry have been asked for their wishlist (to crack down on those dangerous counterfeit music tracks). The problem is the countries participating in ACTA negotiations have signed with the USA that they will not reveal the contents of the treaty until after they ratify it.

The public were asked for submissions in New Zealand, but how the frack am i to send a submission on a treaty when i cannot see the contents of it?

In the EU a group of citizens used their official information act to force the EU council to reveal the contents of this treaty... the Council said No. Who are they accountable to? Aparently not to their citizens and not to their own laws.

Within the wishlists of RIAA is making ISPs liable for copyright infringement that happens through their networks.. This we need to be very vocal about. How's an ISP to know whether a data packet contains a copyright infringement?? by only allowing you to talk to sony.com + apple.com ?

In other news, Australia looks like it's about to force all isps to enforce a blacklist of IPs. The result is all of Australia's internet access being filtered, in the on going mission to stamp out child porn. Their internet is going to get horribly slow, and it's not going to stop child porn. You just know the black list (a huge collection of child porn website urls) is going to leak out straight into the hands of the folks who want these urls. I hear a politician is trying to get a list of all R18 sites and add that to a list also. That's some huge list to check against on every packet. (not just port 80, otherwise it'd be too easy to bypass).

The new amendments to the Copyright Act go into force on 1st November. (this coming Saturday)

The rumour mill says some ISPs have taken legal advice and will be disconnecting their own customers apon recieving any accusation (i.e. harsher than the law requires). The lawyers are giving advice in the best interest of their own clients, the ISP, as they should.