On the Gripping Hand

According to PM Helen Clark on TV3′s Sunrise (about 3m21 in) this morning, Judith Tizard is working on a new business model for online copyright. Yeah, right. Full marks to Ollie Driver for pointing out that the Act only requires allegations, not convictions, to trigger enforcement (and a hat tip to Nat Torkington for picking it up)

When Don Christie and I spoke to her last month, Tizard said that she had been waiting for the music industry to present a model and that they had promised her one during the last round of copyright negotiation, so that’s 2+ years and counting.

Hands up all those who have faith she’ll deliver anything?

Apparently, she’s also sorting s92a out by getting APRA and the telcos talking, neither group renowned for a sparkling policy with regard to the Internet. What about the ISPs? What about the 100+ submissions (thanks, theyworkforyou.co.nz) that were received by the Select Committee (including APRA-AMCOS and both major telcos) that resulted in the Committee removing the measures that reappeared in section 92a and/or balancing them with a fine for false allegations (which was also removed by the Minister after the Select Committee had finished its season. That’s surely a better place to start than two groups with financial interests in being ticket-clippers of the result. And what about the content creators? Frankly, APRA doesn’t speak for me. What I do is well outside their brief. And, correct me if I’m wrong but APRA covers performing and broadcast rights, not recording rights. So, how can they make a deal about recordings?

There are going to be lots of business models – innovation demands it. Trying to legislate it will end in stultifying the online environment. The US is a much bigger market, with many more dollars at stake, and they haven’t tried this because they know it won’t work.

Let me reiterate about s92 , and I’ll say it really loudly:

WE ARE THE FIRST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD TO TRY THIS APPROACH

France raised the idea and was shot down by the European Parliament. The US had it in a bill, and it was taken out. I can’t see how it’s going to work.

Some ISPs are thinking it will be an arms race – having to buy equipment that will do Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) without slowing down the flow too much, but then the pirates will get better encryption, and the ISPs will have to get into decryption yadda yadda yadda. Countering that is a suggestion that it can all be covered by amending Acceptable Use Policies – most ISPs already have stuff in their AUPs about not using the connection for illegal purposes, this would just be a specific mention yadda yadda yadda.

But, and this is a fairly solid but, IF s92 is about protecting NZ content creators’ copyrights, who are they being protected from ? If the aim is to protect them from overseas pirates, what good is a new Zealand law? If it’s aimed at NZ pirates, why is the NZ government protecting overseas interests with a punitive law? I can’t see how this is supposed to protect anyone.

What is it going to take to get the PM to realise that Tizard a) doesn’t understand the stuff she’s tasked with sorting out and b) is not up to the job of sorting anyone out? If you want to develop a functioning knowledge economy, which the PM has repeatedly said she does, then you must have Cabinet-level engagement with someone who knows what they’re doing. And Tizard is a Minister Outside Cabinet. Time to rethink, Prime Minister.