coffee.geek.nz

New Zealand has a new Copyright Act, that goes into effect on 28th February 2009

In amongst the act is section 92a: ISPs are required to disconnect those accussed of copyright infringement. This was worrying, and during select committee discussion this was modified to have penalties when the accuser turns out to be wrong. (see Controversial copyright clause to be amended computerworld.co.nz)

At the last minute the penalties for wrong accusations was removed. So, the copyright act passed, with section 92a allowing copyright holders to accuse anyone of infringement, without requiring proof - and ISPs are forced to comply and disconnect service. You don't get a trial, you're just cut off and no more internet for you.

No more email, no booking airlines, no more buying books on the internet - you're cut off based only on an accusation. If they decided to accuse me, I would not be able to continue my occupation as an Open Source programmer / gadget wrangler. I'd have to give up and probably retrain as a barrista.

This is New Zealand law. You can't make this shit up!

mum and I, originally uploaded by Br3nda

mum came to town to attend the New Zealand Open Source awards. I didn't win a prize, but i did win a great 2 days hanging out with mum.

photos of the NZ open source awards are up on flickr - http://flickr.com/photos/taniwha/sets/72157607484286866/

Mahara team winning:

Slide about me (i didn't win)

Dave Lane's winning speech, where he says the "knowledge economy" is right here in NZ.

The New Zealand open source awards are tomorrow night - I wanted to ask what your picks are for winners? The finalists are listed on the NZOSA website

Open Source Contributor
This is a really hard one, as there are massive contributions by all four contributors. My pick is Francois Marier, due to the huge number of contributions as a debian package maintainer for over 50+ packages.

Open Source Software Project