Slashdot Mirror

"Despite what appears to be a big-budget lobbying effort by the pro-patent fraternity, Hon Simon Power announced today that he wouldn't be modifying the proposed Patents Bill hence software will be un-patentable once the Bill passes into law.

Follow the link in the summary and you get:

It's official: Software will be unpatentable in NZ

Despite what appears to be a big-budget lobbying effort by the pro-patent fraternity, Hon Simon Power announced today that he wouldn't be modifying the proposed Patents Bill hence software will be unpatentable once the Bill passes into law.

And follow that link, and you get:

Simon Power 15 JULY, 2010 Minister announces way forward for software patents Commerce Minister Simon Power has instructed the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) to develop guidelines to allow inventions that contain embedded software to be patented.

So, seems to be the opposite of what the summary claims.

This has been in discussion since at least June 2008. And here's a nice link to the federal government's announcement in August, which clearly states that hands-free and two-way radios are exempt. Cheap hands-free kits are about $30 NZD, and my crappy $130 NZD phone even came with one.

This has been in discussion since at least June 2008. And here's a nice link to the federal government's announcement in August, which clearly states that hands-free and two-way radios are exempt. Cheap hands-free kits are about $30 NZD, and my crappy $130 NZD phone even came with one.

Seems like every other day now a new crazy law is put in place, just to be repealed a week later. What is this, a circus?

In this case, there was a change of government. That wasn't enough by itself, mind; the new government was willing to sit back and watch what happened when the new law came into effect.

In this case what really lead to the repeal was the actions of a company that was too big to be ignored -- TelstraClear refusing to have anything to do with writing a code of practice to mitigate the effects of the law. Suddenly I'm glad I'm with them, and I've already written to compliment them on their actions.

I'm also rather tickled to note that my MP -- Peter Dunne -- took a key role in calling for the repeal. That was after he had been part of the government that passed the law in the first place, mind you ... (yes there was a change of government, but he's been in both governing coalitions.)

That would be the former member of Parliament Judith Tizard (she lost her seat during the last General Election in November). Now would be a really good time for all New Zealand based Slashdot readers to contact Steven Joyce (who is the minister for Communications and Information Technology). It would probably also be a good idea to contact your local electorate MP to voice your concern.

From my blog:

My notes I posted to mailing list reproduced on this:

Here is the major announcement from the government:
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?Docum entID=28024

and the actual proposed legislation is here:
http://www.parliament.nz/NR/rdonlyres/5A88D15B-C4A 1-42C2-AE75-9200DD87F738/48250/DBHOH_BILL_7735_401 93.pdf

Some quick highlights as I read the act: (Note I am not a lawyer)
- Reverse engineering IS allowed under some circumstances - basically for interoperability
- format shifting is allowed but only initially for 2 years, this can be extended though (or not)
- time shifting is allowed provided you don't keep it and it's not available on demand
- ISPs are basically not liable (provided they follow take down notices)
- allowed to alter commercial software if the vendor doesn't fix problems in reasonable time
- anti-TPM (DRM via another name) is prohibited for sale or for producing (seems to cover open source). Fines of $150K or 5 years jail. Doesn't seem to prohibit if you have a copy but you can't write it yourself, sell it or tell others about it. Does make it an offence if you use it to copy copyrighted material. But you are allowed to use anti-TPM for "interoperability of software" so conceivably you could use software to play Itunes or DVDs on Linux. But this only applies if
you have asked vendor for a copy you can use and they don't supply in a reasonable time.

Overall this seems to be much better than DMCA of the USA but not perfect. It is probably better than people could have hoped for.

Ian

For what it's worth, this very short article looks like a cut down version of a press release from Judith Tizard --- New Zealand's minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage.

The original press release is slightly longer with a couple of extra paragraphs on the end.