Bless me Internet, for I have sinned. It is 6 whole months since my last post. Woh!

So what happened to drag me away from the keyboard?

• I got a dog (using the same rule as cats – see other blog)
• I helped run a BarCamp on Open Government
• I did a couple of other projects that I can’t link to or talk too much about
• I had bronchitis (been a pretty crappy winter all around, health-wise)
• I was accepted as an exhibitor in the Kapiti Arts Trail this weekend (#91)
• (I’m sure there was some other stuff)
• Oh yeah, I signed up on Twitter.

That last is the big one, really, as it chews up the most time. I have barely looked at RSS since April, and have only made one post to my family blog. It’s really quite fascinating to me (10K tweets later) and not a little frightening. I’m following most of the people I used to use RSS for, but now it’s in real time.

So, what’s hauled me back to the keyboard? ACTA – the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – you may remember that I’ve blogged on this before. Well, it’s just entered its next round, in Korea, that well-known home of freedom and civil liberties (and the first country in the world to pass a 3 strikes law and implement it).

So, wassup with ACTA? For background, I’d like to point you to a recording of me discussing ACTA with Kim Hill on National Radio recently. Very pleased with the event and it’s now very timely, as ACTA has reared up again. (more…)

(Hat-tip to harrismint for this one)

On Torrentfreak there is a report of an EU vote (481 in favour, 25 against and 21 abstentions) to accept a report about fundamental freedoms on the Internet.

For the third time in a year the European Parliament has spoken out against tougher anti-piracy legislation that would allow alleged file-sharers to be disconnected from the Internet based on evidence from anti-piracy lobby groups. Instead, they chose to protect rights and freedoms of Internet users.

Apparently, the French are not amused. (more…)

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/section-92a-be-scrapped-89121

Prime Minister John Key has announced that the government will throw out the controversial Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment (New Technologies) Act and start again.

Justice minister Simon Power will now meet with officials and rewrite the section of the Act from the ground up.

No timeframe has been set for whatever clause will replace Section 92A.

Let’s hope we can do it right this time.

Astute readers of the net will have noticed that Korea has a proposal for a three strikes or, should we say “graduated response” piece of legislation.

France is also going through the process of such legislation in spite of the fact that the European Parliament has declared it not suitable to Europe. In Ireland, the IP industry has coerced the largest ISP and has sent demands to the smaller ISPs to put in place a graduated response mechanism without legislation. That’s their preferred tactic, I think.

Germany has recently knocked back such a proposal, but there appears to be a surge in United States and other countries for such processes to be put in place.

This has led some people to ask “is this just about the RIAA or are they just a useful stalking horse for wider goals of censorship and control?”.

In my view, that’s bordering on tinfoil hat territory. I’m not disputing there is a wider game being played globally by interested parties, and to some extent it’s about control. But I really don’t think censorship’s the driving force. However, I agree that the RIAA et al are front and centre, while machinations occur behind closed doors. (more…)

Well, sort of. Introduction of Section 92A has been delayed until 27 March, to allow the negotiating parties to sort the Code of Practice out.

3News has it here:

Government delays introduction of controversial ‘S92A’

The government has called for a delay in the implementation of Section 92A, the controversial Copyright Amendment Act due to come into force February 28.

John Key made the announcement at a post-cabinet press conference this afternoon, stating the implementation will be delayed until March 27.

“We are hoping that by that time we will have come up with a voluntary code of practice,” said Mr Key.

It is reported Section 92A will be suspended if no agreement is reached.

and Computer World has it here:

Finlayson John Key delays copyright law

[...] Computerworld spoke to technologist Nat Torkington who attended Finlayson’s press conference this afternoon at 4pm.

Torkington says the government may suspend the controversial S92a if no agreement is reached between the parties on how to implement it.

[...]Even if there is an agreement, Torkington says the government will monitor the first six months of the new regime and review the progress then.

My hearty thanks to everyone who has been involved in protests, and especially to Bronwyn Holloway-Smith and Matt Holloway of the Creative Freedom Foundation who, I have no doubt, are a big part of the cause of this. Well done guys!

You may remember I posted last year on an interview Oliver Driver did with Chris Hocquard. He still doesn’t get it, in my opinion, despite the fact that he’s the director and sole shareholder in amplifer.co.nz and is well regarded in the industry.

Last Thursday, he had a set to on 95Bfm (MP3) (where he’s also a director and shareholder) with Russell Brown, media commentator and founder of Public Address. Russell rang in to criticize and correct an interview with PM John Key in which Key had said that a) National didn’t support it (when they did) and b) they had officials’ advice that they had to support it now. Anyone who read my last post
will know that, after the Select Committee process, the officials were against the reinsertion of s92A, although I have no doubt they’ve accepted it as gospel since, since to do otherwise now would be to criticize a former Minister and a current Attorney-General and Public Servant 101 says you just don’t do that in public. (more…)

Last year, when I first heard about ACTA, I submitted an OIA request to the Competition, Trade and Investment Branch of the MED for any information about ACTA in order to make a submission. I recorded the results, and my progress on a wiki as well as my final submission. I was extremely disappointed as to the result. MED identified 91 documents but only provided 13, and those were redacted heavily, as MED advised that all the countries participating had agreed not to tell anyone anything. They were also all photocopies of text and thus not searchable but I’ve made the PDFs available from the link. Not a hugely successful result, from my perspective, but I got enough to complete my submission, so I left it there instead of referring it to the Ombudsman. You can only bang your head against the wall for so long, eh? (more…)