Good god. Is there an online form letter I can sign and send? I have neither the time nor will to draft such a thing myself, but by god I'll put my name to it!
Stu
· 2 years ago
BEN BEN BEN Make your letter a form man! Heck with it, I'm sending a copy now with the relevant bits changed.
Stu
· 2 years ago
Done. Seriously man, make this an online form we can click on. A mailto: url would suffice surely?
Stu
· 2 years ago
What the heck is so wrong with our current Copyright laws btw?
Ben
· 2 years ago
Well for one thing, our current copyright law specifically bans format shifting. It is currently illegal to rip files from CD and put them on your MP3 player.
Hence my incredulity that they are barely even fixing that. I mean a 2 year sunset on that clause? WTF? I'm guessing there's not a 2 year sunset on the anti-circumvention stuff.
Yet again it's "We (the record companies) know what's best for you (the consumers), so just leave it all to us OK? We'll look after the content. Trust us."
Ryan
· 2 years ago
As the world, not just New Zealand and America shift to a truly digital platform, where people no longer care if they buy a CD, or a DVD, or a HD DVD, or a BluRay Disc, or a MiniDisc, or a Vinyl Record, or a Cassette Tape but care that they own the right to said media for the rest of their lives.
As well as the ability to give or sell that right to anybody else they wish. Just like you can sell a store bought CD to anyone else.
I'm going to write a letter soon, which will take it from the angle of document formats. The european union, and the usa have gotten together and commissioned a standardised document format, which is open (as in the specification), and is called the Open Document Format, or ODF. This format was created because government agencies realised that microsoft office documents from 1997 will eventually not be able to be read, as the format is proprietary. Which means that the specification on how it works is not published.
This is very similar to DRM in the fact that, it's a proprietary system, with one much larger problem, in that it's illegal to learn how it works, and allow people to publish that information / make a tool to do it for them.
I feel very strongly about this, as I'm an engineer with a passion for understanding how things work, and then using that information to try and better society. If it's illegal for me to learn how a system works, and publish information on the possible ways around it, then I may have to look at moving to another country.
Ryan
Ben
· 2 years ago
Very well put Ryan, and as I just added to the post, we're not talking about just music or video or documents. We're talking about any 'information' that can conceivably be covered by any form of 'rights management'.
Tim Harding
· 2 years ago
Judith Tizard is in an odd position, she's the Minister for libraries and trying to unlock NZ's digital heritage and future http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?Do... and she's the Minister for Consumer Affairs and yet she's got this massive conflict as she tries to lock up our heritage and culture and uphold anti-competitive practices and restrict consumer choice with DRM in her other role. This is really twisted :D
Rob Birnie
· 2 years ago
Damn, I wish I'd found this letter earlier. I've already started a petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/NZCPYWRT/petition... so please go and sign it and spread the word! We want to stop this thing dead right now!
rob.
Jordan Carter
· 2 years ago
One point: this is a draft Bill. It will go to Select Committee, and be open for public submissions.
As well as writing to the Minister, you should send your letters to the relevant Select Committee as submissions.
You can ask to be heard, and make a presentation orally about what is wrong with the draft and what needs to change.
InternetNZ (where I work) shares these concerns. We're working on a legal review of the bill now, and will be making a submission on it next year.
Jordan
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
New Zealand's own DRM policy (E-government website) says this:
"Digital rights management and similar technologies will prevent users from doing things they might consider reasonable (it would be unnecessary otherwise). If this is imposed without reference to users, or is abused by copyright owners or software vendors, a backlash may result."
Mark Harris
· 2 years ago
Before sounding off to the politicians, it might be better to read the thing first. In my view, there are serious flaws in it, but uninformed comment will be disregarded, even if it makes good points.
As Jordan said above, this is a draft bill - there's time for it to be amended. But automatic "DRM=BAD" messages will have little impact. Informed commentary and suggestions for improvement will be much more likely to have influence.
All Comments
Hence my incredulity that they are barely even fixing that. I mean a 2 year sunset on that clause? WTF? I'm guessing there's not a 2 year sunset on the anti-circumvention stuff.
Yet again it's "We (the record companies) know what's best for you (the consumers), so just leave it all to us OK? We'll look after the content. Trust us."
As well as the ability to give or sell that right to anybody else they wish. Just like you can sell a store bought CD to anyone else.
I'm going to write a letter soon, which will take it from the angle of document formats. The european union, and the usa have gotten together and commissioned a standardised document format, which is open (as in the specification), and is called the Open Document Format, or ODF. This format was created because government agencies realised that microsoft office documents from 1997 will eventually not be able to be read, as the format is proprietary. Which means that the specification on how it works is not published.
This is very similar to DRM in the fact that, it's a proprietary system, with one much larger problem, in that it's illegal to learn how it works, and allow people to publish that information / make a tool to do it for them.
I feel very strongly about this, as I'm an engineer with a passion for understanding how things work, and then using that information to try and better society. If it's illegal for me to learn how a system works, and publish information on the possible ways around it, then I may have to look at moving to another country.
Ryan
rob.
As well as writing to the Minister, you should send your letters to the relevant Select Committee as submissions.
You can ask to be heard, and make a presentation orally about what is wrong with the draft and what needs to change.
InternetNZ (where I work) shares these concerns. We're working on a legal review of the bill now, and will be making a submission on it next year.
Jordan
"Digital rights management and similar technologies will prevent users from doing things they might consider reasonable (it would be unnecessary otherwise). If this is imposed without reference to users, or is abused by copyright owners or software vendors, a backlash may result."
As Jordan said above, this is a draft bill - there's time for it to be amended. But automatic "DRM=BAD" messages will have little impact. Informed commentary and suggestions for improvement will be much more likely to have influence.
Good design, who make it?