An email to @GreenNZ re NZ Copyright

This is an annotated verion of an email I sent to a Green MP during the debate... thought it might capture some useful context. Purple bits are the annotations not included in the email.

1)

(Nick Smith is a Government minister - he was standing in for the Minister responsible during the debate under urgency - so urgent that even the Minister responsible couldn't make it - that's extreme!)

Nick Smith: Used comparison / analogy with TELEPHONE network (right to cut-off access for abusers)

All TELEPHONE abuse is OUTBOUND - originated by 'offender'

(Smith referred to people making nuisance calls etc - as an example where the state can prohibit access to a network, access to which is generally seen as a modern 'right' - he failed to mention that people who get cut off would have to be found guilty of something criminal first!)

2)

CORRECT ANALOGY

Get SATELLITE company to block the reception for a single residence, because someone there has been tuning into a station broadcasting unlicenced copyright material.

Accept, analogy not correct in a TECHNICAL sense, but EXACTLY analogous in a COMMERCIAL/ECONOMIC/BUSINESS sense.

(really it is - the Gov't [with the makes-my-skin-crawl-weird] vicious and vehement semi-consent and 100% backing by the main opposition party, managed to swing back and forth between technical and business concerns, to avoid addressing the logical flaws the other-side was attacking on - and then go on to praise [weirdly over-and-over] the other sides negotiating skills.)

3)

THEREFORE: Cut off file-UPLOADERS (how blatantly obvious is THAT?) - Why so much focus on file-SHARERS? (and defn thereof) - The DOWNLOADERS are no more the cause of the problem than that person tuning into that TV station.

(SERIOUSLY: You can't have evidence of file-sharing without knowing which direction it's flowing - so why is denial of the modern 'right' to Internet access threatend for those who tune in to an illegal broadcast?)

4)

Nick Smith: "Low cost and efficient for all parties"

Competer based, run by geeks, like to AUTOMATE. Initially ACCUSATION carries weight - so entirely probable that first stages of penalty (notices etc), completed and concluded via fully AUTOMATED means, triggered by an ACCUSATION

(This REALLY scares me - it establishes the slope, downhill of which is auto-Termination for persistent 'offenders' as identified by copyright holders [or their proxies, etc...])

5)

Either I'm paranoid, or this whole set-up is downright scary! Why has no-one mentioned ACTA?!?!

(Weird - we have this bit of this leaked proposed international treaty [no parliament vote or debate required] that proposed basically this approach - that was removed from the treaty draft after general outrage - and is now being forced through parliament under urgency)

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As of now, it's gone midnight, the Gov't very very nearly got it through tonight, but the house went into recess. The legislation will be passed shortly after 9am Friday morning - unless ... something ... but, .

Best objective (mostly) news-webiste URL ever: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/4882838/government-is-totally-fucked