Won't Somebody Think Of The Cows? New Zealand On The Brink Of Sacrificing Its Digital Future In TPP Negotiations
from the short-sighted-thinking dept
Even before Wikileaks released the full text of TPP's IP chapter, New Zealand's Creative Freedom Foundation had already been given some hints about what was coming:
Last week the Creative Freedom Foundation participated in a group briefing and Q&A session with David Walker, NZ's Chief Negotiator in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, and officials Angela Strahl and Yvonne Woutersen.
What the country's TPP negotiators are effectively doing here is to surrender key rights that belong to all New Zealanders, for the sake of some minor, and probably temporary, financial gains for a single industry with powerful lobbyists. That's a terrible bargain for the country's future. If these concessions are made, it will not only impoverish artists and the general public, who will suddenly be prevented from using and building on vast swathes of the digital past, it will also make it far harder to set up 21st-century companies that are based on creativity, not cows.
The meeting made it quite clear that, although the details aren't final, we can expect to lose many remix rights and see a greater 'orphaned works' problem here in New Zealand in exchange for more dairy exports to the U.S. Rather than further protecting artists' rights, this move will prop up a fundamentalist approach to copyright that will drain the pool of works currently accessible to artists who wish to freely build upon them.
…
NZ's Parallel Importing abilities are likely to stay unchanged, as is the ability to set our own limitations and exceptions to our domestic Copyright law. However, it was strongly hinted at that an extension of our Copyright Term is inevitable.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, cows, fair use, international trade, new zealand, orphan works, remix, tpp, trade
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
NZ Ag exports
NZ also has one of the best education systems around, and a highly educated population-I'll be a little surprised if they don't figure some of this out.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: NZ Ag exports
Unfortunately, international agreements like TPP almost never get voted down, no matter the insanity-levels. Politicians are far too bought by local lobbies who have gotten their pet-bribes. The only question is if NZ has enough circulation for politicians to be more scared of voters than lobbies. In this case: If TPP is done within a year, the election could be quite interesting!
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
You've completely misunderstood NZ here.
This isn't "a small industry with powerful lobbyists" this is a massive industry that employs - directly or indirectly - the vast majority of the electorate.
The government is wrong, but it didn't need any lobbying. We are almost completely dependent on Agriculture and Tourism, because we haven't developed our high tech industry properly. Yes, we could make some long term gains (which I would like) by actually protecting our creative and copyright interests, but that would be political suicide for either of the major parties.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Really, the government is like a child.
"Honey, I don't hear the kids, they're doing something wrong."
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
NZ dairy
The medical and drug patents are more likely to bite NZ in the ass in the long term. Apparently, the US thinks that since they spend more per capita than anyone else on health care (for relatively poor results), then everyone else should have to pay more to even things out.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
That's Nothing
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Exactly the way the US negotiators want it. Let's see if NZ'ers are willing to stand up.
Newest phrase from the US negotiators..."Let's milk 'em for all they're worth".
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
It SHEEP for New Zealand,, not cows !!!
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: It SHEEP for New Zealand,, not cows !!!
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: It SHEEP for New Zealand,, not cows !!!
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: It SHEEP for New Zealand,, not cows !!!
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
The NZ population now has to worry about becoming a totalitarian repressed society, due to John Key never reading a history book and learning about the Stasi.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Guy's gotta be taking his cues from Somewhere.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
2012 US milk export data
[ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]
Add Your Comment
Add A Reply