This cartoon is NOT copyright by Dylan Horrocks '09
As the natural world meets the digital
opportunities are opening up for artists to connect with people across the world.
The Creative Freedom Foundation encourages and facilitates discussion, provides education, and seeks to answer emerging questions around issues that have the potential to influence New Zealand artists' creativity.
News
UK plans 'Copyright Militias' of Movie/Music Companies Punishing Citizens Without Judicial Oversight, and more.
7:27am 20th November 2009
TorrentFreak reports on UK copyright plans
, saying that tomorrow's Digital Economy Bill will include the ability to "create a 'three-strikes' plan that costs entire families their Internet access if any member stands accused of infringement", that "record labels and movie studios can be given investigative and enforcement powers that allow them to compel ISPs, libraries, companies and schools to turn over personal information about Internet users", and that "ISPs could be forced to spy on their users, or to have copyright lawyers examine every piece of user-generated content before it goes live; also, copyright “militias” can be formed with the power to police copyright on the web". As BoingBoing says "This is as bad as I've ever seen, folks [it affects] free speech, privacy, freedom of assembly, the presumption of innocence"Collateral Damage: Town Has Internet Terminated After Single Download
12:31pm 16th November 2009
The NZ Herald reports on a town that had its entire internet cut off, they "provided Wi-Fi for a number of years as a free municipal service but last week was forced to shut it down after a single copyright infringing download saw the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) threatening legal action.". Naturally the MPAA took the 'tough on crime' approach saying that punishing 1000s of people for the actions of one person was necessary and just. Over the weekend Clare Curran blogged about how this would affect New Zealanders and today Kiwiblog comments saying "This is why termination should not be a remedy under s92A." It's inevitable that the collateral damage from internet termination will harm many innocent people, rather than just the guilty party because the internet is a shared resource in most organisations, businesses, and families just like the telephone and postal service.New Website Launched to Watch International Copyright Changes
12:57pm 14th November 2009
A new public website called Copyright Watch has recently been launched by The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL.net), and other international copyright experts to collect and monitor copyright laws from all over the world. "Copyright laws are changing across the world, and it's hard to keep track of these changes, even for those whose daily work is affected by them," said Teresa Hackett, Program Manager at eIFL.net. "A law that is passed in one nation can quickly be taken up by others, bilateral trade agreements, regional policy initiatives, or international treaties. With Copyright Watch, people can learn about the similarities and differences in national copyright laws, and they can use that information to more easily spot patterns and emerging trends." Visit the website here > Public Address on ACTA: "How DARE they sell ordinary New Zealanders down the river?"
12:56pm 13th November 2009
The population of countries negotiating ACTA is 1,178,504,491. The members of public with access to the text of ACTA: 42. Perhaps with this in mind PublicAddress.net features a well-timed editorial on ACTA today by Colin Jackson that's well worth reading, "There is now no cost to distributing information. That's not rhetoric - it's an indisputable fact. It means that people who rely for their income on being a toll-gate on the flow of information don't have a business model any more. Artists can still create and charge people for appreciating their work directly, but those who make their living from recycling imperfect copies of what others do are going to find it more and more difficult from now on. This is the context for the innocuously-named Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, an international treaty being negotiated by the governments of New Zealand, the EU, Canada, the US and a few other countries. Rumours have persisted for some time that [ACTA] is really about controlling copying on the Internet, as well as, or perhaps instead of, controlling the flood of fake Prada handbags and Rolex watches filling our shops. And rumours are what we have to rely on because no-one has seen the text of ACTA. The government officials negotiating it have told us that it's far too commercially sensitive for the people it would affect to be able to actually see it before it's all signed off by Obama, Gordon Brown or his successor and John Key." →Welcome to the Ideas Economy: Free talk on Friday
5:22pm 11th November 2009
Massey University Wellington will host a free seminar from 6pm this coming Friday 13 November titled Welcome to the Ideas Economy. International guests Giep Hagoort (Netherlands) and Jan van Mol (Belgium) will give presentations exploring "how open source creativity is flipping the script on creative industries" followed by a discussion panel. →TV3's 'Target' Becomes Press Release for NZFACT and RIANZ
10:47am 10th November 2009
Target's segment last week on illegal downloads, 'Shame On You', presented one side of an ongoing debate about copyright infringement online - that of NZFACT and RIANZ. For the past few years these groups have lobbied to be able to accuse New Zealanders and have them punished without a trial, and they almost succeeded. Section 92A of the Copyright Act, which the public called the 'Guilt Upon Accusation' law, was deemed "draconian" by Prime Minister John Key and opposed by at least 20,000 New Zealanders including 10,000 kiwi musicians, film makers, and other artists of the Creative Freedom Foundation. Despite protest from NZFACT and RIANZ the law was scrapped in March and it's currently undergoing a rewrite. Top Shelf Productions , the markers of Target, showed just one side of the argument and left many unchallenged viewpoints and statistics from NZFACT or RIANZ. Target became little more than a press release for these lobby groups, and our response follows... →EU Rejects 'Guilt Upon Accusation' (sort of)
1:12pm 6th November 2009
The New York Times reports that the European Union has rejected Guilt Upon Accusation laws (AKA 'Three Strikes') and guaranteed a "fair and impartial" procedure before any punishment such as internet termination. “This is a very fundamental step,” said Catherine Trautmann, a member of parliament from Strasbourg, France, who sponsored the amendment “It is the first time that we affirm that access to Internet is an essential tool to exercise fundamental rights and freedoms. It is progress for the rights of citizens.” Ms. Reding said “This Internet freedom provision is unprecedented across the globe and a strong signal that the E.U. takes fundamental rights very seriously”. While talking about basic freedoms such as freedom of speech the amendment does still allow internet termination, effectively removing a mechanism for free speech. The text of the amendment is available on Christian Engström's site . The wording of a "fair and impartial procedure" stops short of guaranteeing a trial, although the amendment also guarantees "The right to an effective and timely judicial review". This is good news for Europe but there's no word yet on how this will affect the French or UK plans. (Update 6 Nov 2009) BoingBoing.net's coverage of the amendment . →
