NZ Copyright law is an ass
Part I
A New Zealand law being introduced in February makes ISPs responsible to 3 strikes and you are disconnected from the net disciplinary action against people who download copyrighted content from the net. This new law may put pressure on ISPs to create take down lists for IPs broadcasting copyright violations; of which, there are many. It is retrograde to attack the audience rather than the criminals. Our position is that copyright law should be cheaply enforceable. But enforce it by prosecuting those that cause criminal activity, rather than the kids who take advantage of it highlighting to the powers that be where they are. Taking down a site by IP address is simple. This modern way of attacking the audience is retrograde as it is unnecessarily expensive and traumatic. There are cheaper ways of protecting copyright, like an entry in a hosts.deny file.
Part II
A new law is coming in changing copyright for digital downloads in New Zealand. Don’t see it as a good idea. Punishing the audience is rarely good for the art. Just cut the copyright criminals off at source without pursing kids through the legal system.
A similar US law change is more serious. It makes it more possible for corporate producers to take your work (for example from the web) and use it in their commercial product if they can not identify or find you. When authorship is no longer an assumption or a right, then it becomes something bought and sold like a number plate. There will then be a public market for US rights to your own work. In other words registration of your own work to protect it from scavengers using it.
Although I agree it is a hassle and this law is of real concern, the current law prevents work from being used unless copyright clearance is obtained, but whom owns the work may be hard to determine. The current system allows for accidental violation as it allows for retrospective claims. The new system means that copyright would be exactly like domain ownership and probably the two eventually would be the same thing. Perhaps this is the beginning of the commercialization of perception, but great works that remain unknown because of no owner (i.e. really orphaned) – it is a shame not to publish. So Public Domain is appropriate.
