You may have noticed a number of avatars turning black since the start of this week, this blackout is only a part of the actions planned during the recent FooCamp to draw attention to New Zealands impending copyright law changes.
I’m going to use this post to bring some of the commentary on the subject together, for more detail – follow the links below:
- Juha Saarinen
- David Farrar (and on KiwiBlog)
- Russel Brown
- NME
- Nat Torkington
- Brenda Wallace – here, here, and here. Here, Brenda compares the coverage between TVNZ and TV3
- IT Gen
- Lynne Pope
- Peter Dunne – MP
- Bevan Rudge
- Maurico Freitas
- IP World
- NZ Herald
- Read Write Web
- The Guardian UK
- Copywrong Song (YouTube) (CFF)
- BoingBoing
- ZDNet Australia
- NetGuide
- The G33k Show & Kangaroo Court
- Owned
- BGeek.net
- Wikipedia
- The Register
- Ben Kepes
- Mark Harris
- The Opinionated Diner
- NZ Herald – Cartoon
- Flying Kiwis
- TUANZ
Stephen Fry even joined the fray blacking out his avatar, changing his bio and posting updates such as this one [image] – once he joined in and linked to a story covering the blackout, that was it for the hosting site… for a few minutes at least, he did apologise… and got some coverage from the NZ media about it (and on Stuff).
Even some NZ businesses and websites have joined the campaign:
And it’s been on the radio:
And the telly:
- TV3 News (from around 4:00 mins) and here (where they get things very WRONG)
- TVNZ (Website) and an article here
Just to be clear, I am not advocating stealing copyrighted works, the reason I created this post is that I (personally) believe that S92 has a number of fundamental flaws which require attention now, rather than a retrospective patch up job.
For an interesting perspective on copyright and why some people may feel they should ignore it, check out this article (hat tip @Titine)
Also, an interesting result from some digging around ARPA by Simon Lyall can be found here. Joining the ‘interesting’ articles, is this one which outlines Clare Currans view on S92 even down to the view that “there are significant issues with the controversial Section 92A” and this one from Tony Millett of the LIANZA’s Copyright Taskforce.
Juha has also published an interesting article summising the RIANZ responce to the industry TCF here.