Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: A Work of Advocacy, in reply to Bart Janssen,
I really don’t get this. Whether you believe they were terrorists or simply idiots playing with dangerous stuff or victims of a police conspiracy, by making and screening this you surely must prejudice any trial. What am I missing?
We'll discuss that on the show. One thing I really wondered about was whether they'd have released the film if most defendants were facing a jury trial. A judge is considered far less likely to be influenced by such things.
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Hard News: Friday Visions, in reply to Danielle,
I think I might like ‘It’s a Heartache’ better than ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, though…
Ever since I simultaneously laughed and cried through a well-oiled group singalong of 'Heartache' at Jolisa’s dad’s “fun-eral” I have never heard it the same since.
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What. The. Frak. I’m sorry, but even in the realm of ‘advocacy’ film-making, didn’t anyone stop and say “this is ethically problematic”?
Peter Calder covered that with them:
Wright and King-Jones are aware of the charge that they sometimes appear almost to merge with their subjects. At one point, one of the more eloquent of those arrested, Valerie Morse, accosts Detective Sergeant Aaron Pascoe, the head of the operation, outside the Auckland District Court. "Do you really think I am a terrorist?", she asks.
The microphone she thrusts towards him is plugged into King's camera and I feel constrained to ask him whether he has crossed the invisible, but important, line between a documentarian and his subject.
"I think it's impossible to be totally neutral when you are making something. It's very difficult to understand what the environment is for being a political activist in NZ if you don't spend enough time finding out."
It is what it is, basically.
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Cracker: Send in the Clowns, in reply to Sacha,
bloody well, too
Couple of typos but.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to ScottY,
Pagani also had a crack at me in his post. At the risk of linkwhoring here’s my exasperated response.
We do not have this “linkwhoring” concept here. I find it kind of silly. If you wrote something you think is interesting, link away.
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I commented.
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The Listener editorial is now online. I couldn't possibly comment.
http://www.listener.co.nz/commentary/editorial/paying-the-piper/
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Sacha,
Rick Shera has just confirmed for me that Russell is right about this.
Nothing on TPMs in new Act but under #TPPA breaking a TPM would count as a strike even if underlying material out of #copyright
The US stance on TPPA would not only extinguish any fair-use rights to defeat a technical protection measure, it would protect a form of TPM – region coding – that has never been protected under NZ law (including the 2008 copyright amendment bill from which the file-sharing part was held back).
Pricks. But even that’s not in any draft – it’s just their extreme negotiating stance.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
BTW, Russell, I do agree with you that this act is quite bad enough without the Orwellian hyperbole but believe me making a “recommendation” to caucus is a very long way from a solid policy commitment. And Curran knows it.
Yes, I’m sure she does know that.
The party has, since Curran got involved with the issue, formally and consistently opposed termination as a remedy. National appears to have insisted on it.
People might not agree with the compromise in getting termination made inactive in the bill as it was passed -- it's a matter of political taste -- but simply voting against it would have produced a worse result.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
but voting for it’s passage and/or adding insult to injury by getting rather coy about committing to repeal. Can’t have it both ways, sweeties.
To be fair, Curran has already said she'd recommend a repeal bill to her caucus if the government enacts the termination provisions.