S92A is toast
The NBR is saying that the government has scrapped the appalling S92A of the Copyright Act – the Guilt upon Accusation law. That’s fantastic news! Well done to everyone who has campaigned for this, and particularly well done to John Key and his government for realising just how wrong this was and having the guts to stop it.
Now to work out what should go in its place. Politicians need to talk to people apart from a few organizations that represent some of the rights-holders. There’s a lot more views to consider when trying to figure out the right way to approach copyright in the Internet age.
I’ve been invited to a meeting tomorrow about this by Clare Curran MP of the Labour party. I’m more than happy to talk to any of the other parties as well.
Let’s get it right this time!
Yee-ha! :)
There’s still a bit of a worry, though. TV1 News this evening reported that NZ still needs to do something about its copyright law if it’s going to sign a free-trade deal with the US.
I suspect that means that there will still be attempts to sneak something draconian or DMCA-like onto our lawbooks.
Comment by Lawrence D'Oliveiro — 23 March 2009 @ 8:27 pm
As I’ve said earlier about this one, if unjust copyright law is a requirement for a US FTA, let’s get that out in the open so we can all balance it against the benefits. We might not all agree, but we’ll at least be all arguing from the same set of information. C.
Comment by colin — 23 March 2009 @ 9:08 pm
What do you think of the latest proposal, to have the Copyright Tribunal make rulings on penalties?
Comment by Lawrence D'Oliveiro — 15 July 2009 @ 1:36 pm