Hi, For those of you following the Copyright (and possibly even censoring/filtering) situation in NZ, there have been some development in the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) negotiations.
*ACTA in a nutshell:* The New Zealand government is drafting this agreement with other countries. While in name it is about protecting consumers from counterfeit merchandise, the agreement is much wider in scope and addresses the regulation of Internet use by private citizens in an attempt to prevent unauthourised sharing of copyrighted works. The drafting of this agreement is being conducted in secret meetings, and the agreement itself is not available for public review or comment. Since signing such an agreement will obligate a country to legally enforce it, this means the democratically elected New Zealand government is negotiating with other countries to potentially change our laws, and is doing so in secret. [text borrowed from here: http://acta.net.nz/] *PublicACTA forums:* The Creative Freedom Foundation are part of a NZ coalition pushing for more transparency around ACTA. NZ is hosting the next round of international negotiations next month, and there is some action planned around this, including Internet NZ's PublicACTA forums in Wellington (10 April) and Auckland, featuring keynote speaker Michael Geist (big news!). Professor Michael Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. He is a leading voice in the international public debate surrounding ACTA and has become an invaluable go-to source for current information on the negotiations as it is released/leaked. People who are interested in attending the PublicACTA event should register their interest by sending an email to [email protected]. It is FREE!! More here: http://acta.net.nz http://creativefreedom.org.nz/ http://blog.internetnz.net.nz/?p=310 Cheers, -- Bronwyn Holloway-Smith Director, Creative Freedom Foundation http://creativefreedom.org.nz/
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