Posts by Sacha
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Sarah Wedde,
I can see 9 wireless networks from my bedroom
Some wag last night was speculating that Melissa Lee can probably see Alaska from hers
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to Bart Janssen,
a colossal ass on the internet
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Copyleftist discusses the fundamentally flawed nature of this law and some of its background.
This is about control, not compensation to rights-holders. Our new law is meant to promote rent-seeking on behalf of corporate interests.
Meanwhile, the public domain, that garden of intellectual works which we all draw upon to create new content, is steadily diminished. Instead of a rich culture, we’re left with infertile dust that excludes most any work produced in the last 50-100 years (depending on where you live).
Ironic that copyright law originally came about as an incentive to creators to enrich the public domain. The original Statute of Anne, from the 16th century, was created as an incentive to authors to create books by protecting them from the monopolies of book printers and allowing works to add to the cultural gestalt. As written in the constitution of the United States, copyright exists to “promote the progress” of arts and science.
There is nothing there about guaranteeing profits to corporate dynasties.
After noting the music industry's recent bumper returns, practical implications are highlighted including this:
Our new law is guilt on accusation with the rubber-stamp of court approval. A court hearing without the ability to defend yourself is equivalent to no hearing at all.
3. Yes, this will be abused. The only barrier to filing an infringement notice is a fee. If you don’t like what your business competitor is doing, claim infringement. If you don’t like a blog post that offends you, claim infringement.
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Tech Liberty's brief summary of the bill is useful.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
Aggh, the stupid! It burns!
Let's not forget reliable genius Melissa Lee:
And all that with a straight face after her now-famous tweet the previous day. Home taping is killing, etc.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Ben Gracewood,
Why is it our responsibility to ease the burden on these gigantic multinational companies to get their existing remedies?
To comply with "free" trade agreements with the US, whose huge entertainment industry is pushing this into as many places as they can rather than change their business models.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to ScottY,
What truly disgusts me over the passing of this legislation is the abuse of urgency.
And that's what got a lot of people's dander up on Twitter last night.
Most were not well-informed about the Bill's content or implications, as seen in knee-jerk calls to reactivate the #blackout campaign with no sense of outcomes or tactics. Or to launch a denial of service attack at midnight on the legislation.govt.nz website (like anyone would notice).
Witnessing how utterly thick some of our supposed representatives are made a particular impression on at least few young voters. And by contrast Gareth Hughes' impassioned and articulate performance garnered him and his party all sorts of respect.
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to BenWilson,
But picking up what their position is on some abstract idea can be much harder work. And it could end up being just as important. This is a new thing, in evolutionary timescales. We're all learning how to be netizens, and what kind of netizens we want to be.
True, and I guess that's where all the social network apps and approaches are taking us - more ways to build trust (and tribes). We do seem to want to belong to groups, and groups often define themselves by who is outside as well as inside.
I'm taken by how much of that in real-world settings is carried in clothing, accent, vocabulary, body language and other social markers. What are the online equivalents? Or do develoments like Color move us back to that older reliance on visual appearance and gesture?
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Up Front: Fairy-Tale Autopsies, in reply to recordari,
one of the nice people mentioned
Aw, thanks. Glad you re-considered.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Greg Dawson,
Bribe someone with a hard hat and access inside the cordon, or suck up to FieldMarshall Brownlee and chums? I'd get it all out pronto in any case - just look at the stories about people who have played by the rules and been shafted for it.