New Zealand Denies It's Scrapping Copyright Laws
from the too-bad... dept
Despite widespread reports last week that New Zealand was going to scrap its copyright laws, and start from scratch, Tom Rix writes in to point out that New Zealand officials are now denying this report and saying they’re still working on a new version of the copyright amendment that was a source of tremendous controversy recently. Too bad. While it’s likely that any new law (from scratch or just as an amendment) would be driven by corporate interests, it would have been an interesting experiment if the country could have been convinced to really revisit copyright laws.
Filed Under: copyright, new zealand
Comments on “New Zealand Denies It's Scrapping Copyright Laws”
It ain't dead its just ...
Yes, NBR, who originally reported the scrapping story, appear to have got it wrong. However, there are plenty of people here who would welcome a zero based review of our Copyright Act. In the current environment, there are perhaps other legislative priorities though. As comments raised in your original story, my fear also is that whilst we have a statute that in some areas is outdated, at least there is a degree of balance. Opening up the Pandora’s box of a full review means that that balance is up for grabs again by the highest bidders.
Personally, if we are going to continue down the road of ISP intermediation (s92A, 92C DMCA etc) I’d like to see some better checks and balances, and it’s about time that NZ at least allowed parody and satire as an approximation of some form of fair use!