Support for the Common Kiwi

Post by **Dr. Ravenscroft** » Feb Sun 15, 2009 10:36 pm

New Zealand is getting close to passing an insanely copyright law. The law states that if a person is accused of violating copyright law 3 times there internet is shut off. This is just accusations, NO trial, NO Jury, NO way to defend your honor, NO rights what so ever. Join in the Black out campaign, Black out your avatars and we pages, like facebook, myspace, twitter, plurk, etc. Because if it can happen in New Zealand it can happen here, start the protesting.

The law may go into effect on February 28th. Unless there is enough backlash from the masses then they may not sign it into law. More information may be found at these websites:

http://creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/juha/6247

elizabethswann · Post by **elizabethswann** » Feb Sun 15, 2009 10:39 pm

That sounds like a good idea, really. I'm going to do this for my Facebook since I use that more than my Myspace.

Jacca5660 · Post by **Jacca5660** » Feb Mon 16, 2009 3:04 am

That is WRONG!! VERY, VERY WRONG!! I've E-mailed this to everybody in my book and I will black out as soon as I have time!!

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Feb Mon 16, 2009 8:17 am

New Zealand has a lot of (in my opinion) peculiar laws. This does seem like it would be next to impossible to enact fairly, though... not unlike the CPSIA that went into effect here. Something that started (probably) with the kernel of a good idea and went haywire somewhere along the way.

Anyway, the blackout has Stephen Fry's support, and that's good enough for me.

*wanders off to black out Facebook*

elizabethswann · Post by **elizabethswann** » Feb Mon 16, 2009 3:19 pm

DisBeamer wrote:Anyway, the blackout has Stephen Fry's support, and that's good enough for me.

If that doesn't sway enough people then I don't know what will.

Post by **Dr. Ravenscroft** » Feb Mon 16, 2009 10:06 pm

elizabethswann wrote:
DisBeamer wrote:Anyway, the blackout has Stephen Fry's support, and that's good enough for me.
If that doesn't sway enough people then I don't know what will.

Well Now we have support of Molly wood, Tom Merrit, Leo Laporte, and others in the tech industry. With Stephen Fry's nearly 200,000 followers Leo Laporte's 88,000 followers and all the others, the Kiwi's might have a chance at reversing this. I really hope so, because how long is it going to be until we have something similar? We already have some strange copyright stuff going on here.

As an example on youtube.com if some one uses a copyrighted song, which is most of the songs out there that people want to use, the video will be removed, BUT if it is someone singing the song they take it down then the person singing it complains and they put it back up. Annoying to say the least.

Another one is DVD copies, if you make a copy of a DVD, even for your own personal use it is prosecutable offense under the MPAA, however according to the MCA you can do it, yet it allows that peculiar rule the MPAA uses to sue.

I feel light headed now, I'm going to sitdown for a little.

Post by **Dr. Ravenscroft** » Feb Mon 23, 2009 8:17 pm

Update on the New Zealand law. The decision to implement the law has been postponed until March 27th now. The New Zealand government has said that they now want to gauge what the citizens want. Basically this means that they messed up and are now trying to back track. They didn't realize that no one would like being accused and basically prosecuted without evidence..........Jee

Just thought you all would want to know.

elizabethswann · Post by **elizabethswann** » Feb Mon 23, 2009 8:52 pm

Dr. Ravenscroft wrote:Update on the New Zealand law. The decision to implement the law has been postponed until March 27th now. The New Zealand government has said that they now want to gauge what the citizens want. Basically this means that they messed up and are now trying to back track. They didn't realize that no one would like being accused and basically prosecuted without evidence..........Jee

Just thought you all would want to know.

Great update on the situation, Doc. I'm just laughing at how they've postponed it because of their error.

Jacca5660 · Post by **Jacca5660** » Feb Tue 24, 2009 6:20 am

Dr. Ravenscroft wrote:Update on the New Zealand law. The decision to implement the law has been postponed until March 27th now. The New Zealand government has said that they now want to gauge what the citizens want. Basically this means that they messed up and are now trying to back track. They didn't realize that no one would like being accused and basically prosecuted without evidence..........Jee

Just thought you all would want to know.

I think the blackout protest is working! It looks like the New Zealand politicians were sold a bill of laden by the RIAA and various industry organizations. I also see Sony's evil hand in this. I wonder how many political campaigns got very large donations down under? It good to see the voice of reason working.

jenjolt · Post by **jenjolt** » Feb Tue 24, 2009 2:48 pm

I'm sorry I'm not so well informed, but I wanted to ask. What does it mean to "blackout" ?

Post by **js3901** » Feb Tue 24, 2009 6:25 pm

jenjolt wrote:I'm sorry I'm not so well informed, but I wanted to ask. What does it mean to "blackout" ?

well the common phrase, "blackout", means something is dark. think of your house when the power goes out. in this case, you're blocking out images from your avatar (user picture under your name). as the original post points out, this is because Kiwi lawmakers want to change the law re: picture copyrights.