Slashdot Mirror
New Zealand DMCA Moves Forward
nzgeek writes "The DMCA-like amendments to the New Zealand Copyright Act passed their first hurdle in parliament today, with an overwhelming 113 to 6 vote to pass the Bill to the Commerce Select Committee for further discussion. The detail-oriented can read the full debate (or rather lack of debate), and one enterprising New Zealand legal blogger has an excellent series of posts on the Bill, its background, and its implications. New Zealanders interested in fighting this legislation have until the 16th of February 2007 to make submissions to the Select Committee, before the committee makes its recommendations and sends the Bill back for a second reading."
*goes and sobs in the corner*
Karma? Hey I just call it as I see it.
Would you like to give us some examples?
And no, I couldn't give a shit what my karma is.
The police for example. If you call 111 (our emergency number) when, for example, somebody has broken into your house, you'll be told that there aren't any officers available, but somebody will be there to see you as soon as possible. Nevermind the fact that your life may be in danger.
The proper response in this situation is say "fine then, I'll shoot him myself" and then hang up.
You'll have cops swarming all over the place quick smart.
These comments towards New Zealanders aren't exactly justified. Sure, we farm sheep, a lot of sheep in fact. If you are are an anti-New Zealander Australian, then maybe you should consider this: 1. The Australian government bans our apples - this is due to the Australian government fearing the high level of quality of our apples, and the fact that local Australian growers simply can not compete. 2. The Australian government has strict controls on our lamb exports in order to protect the dwindling local lamb market in Australia, Australian lamb isn't that good, and this fact has been recognised. 3. The All Blacks fucking kicked the shit out of the Wallabies all year. 4. We have sent 60+ fire fighters over to Australia to help our with your bush fires. So stop giving us a hard time, maybe you should realise that although we don't have the highest population, we are an extremely productive nation given our size, and that we also will not stand down very easily. Oh, and one last thing... I'm looking forward to the rugby world cup next year in France. It shall be a Wallaby thrashing good time :)
Shut up - and enjoy our Ring Tailed Possums :)
"Get off the cross - we need the wood" - Tori Amos
Please don't mod this trolling right winger up.
The NZ Police Force are actually very good. Like any organisation of size they do have the occasional hiccup, but 99.9% of the time they do an outstanding job, often above and beyond thier call of duty. I would gladly take the NZ Police Force over any other country's in a heart beat, and more often than not that's about how long it takes for the NZ Police to attend a call out.
The same goes for our other emergency, search and rescue, and indeed general health services.
As for the DMCA-like bill, as has already been mentioned, this is only going to select committee, our elected representatives felt that it is important enough to warrant some investigation, debate and public comment before they make up thier minds.
NZ Electronics Enthusiasts: Check out my Trade Me Listings
Or anywhere else.
Software patents delenda est.
Even so, this news is obviously of interest to you, since you're bothering to post a comment. This news is certainly of interest to me, since I live in NZ. The population may be small, but there's no shortage of NZers reading Slashdot. In any case, population-size and newsworthiness don't always go hand-in-hand: if they did, nearly 20% of /. articles would be about things going on in China.
The cops do have guns, in their cars. They choose rightly not to bandy them around in public. The British incidentally do the same.
In regards to age of consent. Do you find it objectionable to not be allowed to have sex with someone younger than 16? Or 18 if you are a legal guardian?
The airline one is indeed a stupid law.
I'm not trying to be a kiwi apologist, but your points are completely bogus and misleading. I split my time evenly between Aussie and NZ and I normally find NZ to be a lot more liberal in general. All countries have their seemingly idiotic laws, New Zealand just doesn't strike me as being exceptional in regards to this.
And no, I couldn't give a shit what my karma is.
Please...
It sounds as if you've not had to deal with the police recently. At least not where I live. While I've spoken to many excellent officers, I've seen a number of instances where the response of the police has made me furious that my tax dollars have to pay for the system we have in place.
My brother had a car smashed in front of his house. The police couldn't have cared less. The next day my brother was held at knifepoint. Turns out it was the same lot that smashed the car up. Excellent police work there. Really serving their purpose of protecting the public.
Driving home from a late night at work one night, a drunken idiot threw a bottle through my car window. They took off when they got a look at me (I'm assuming they thought I was somebody else). I went to the police to complain about it and the officer on duty at the station, after looking up from his magazine, told me that they were far too busy to do anything about it, that it was a petty complaint, and if I wanted to sort it out, go find the guys who did it and sort them out myself. Again, excellent police work.
Let's not go into the cases like the young girl up north who had a taxi sent instead of a police officer. That was plainly avoidable and it all happened because, surprise surprise, the police were too busy. And then there's the rape trials that had to be held recently (and, acquitted or not, I feel they were bloody disgraceful). And the pornography issues within the police force. You seem to be ignoring all of these issues.
But, I'm not going to claim that the entire police force are corrupt. I have dealt with perhaps three officers that have really irritated me and led me to file formal complaints. I have, in fact, dealt with some officers who were very professional and I would assume that they represent the majority. Perhaps you don't realise, but the basis of my complaints centre around what the police seem to be doing most of the time, or, more succintly, what they were ORDERED to be doing. Perhaps you've not noticed that there're more and more violent crimes reported in newspapers every day? Perhaps you've heard about the youth gangs building up in South Auckland because the police haven't the resources to keep them in check. There's only one place to look if you want to know why. The orders the police receive must be followed, since they've taken an oath to the Queen. And I wonder where those come from... If you do speak to a police officer on duty, you'll likely find they're very stressed as well. Do you get the feeling that any of this is pointing somewhere?
So before you go calling me a "trolling right winger", please check that you're not speaking entirely on opinion or hearsay. The problems facing the New Zealand Police are well documented in the media here.
Hey AC of this: There is absolutly no reason to drive by (or use a bot) to post false news here. We usually do an excellent job in that field our selvs... :p
I agree that Australia is over-represented, or discussed out of proportion.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
Hi,
I am a kiwi, who has been living overseas for 6 and a half years, and I used to vote libertarian. Anyway, I am coming back soon, because I find Europe to be too socialist for my tastes, and will be looking into starting a new political movement based on Freedom. It will be partially based on the Libertarianz, and partially based on the "Pirate Parties".
The issues I have with the Libertarianz are:
I dislike the fact they specifically include "intellectual property" as deserving of the same sort of protection as physical property, fair enough, but this is specifically listed in their constitution as an non negotiable policy of theirs, whereas I see the extent that "intellectual property" is to be protected as an issue to be dealt with normally as legislation dealt with in Parliamentm (and personally dont see the point in intellectual property laws at all, although I wont enforce my personal beliefs upon the party I would be interested in helping to create).
I find their over the top America-worshipping symbolism (statue of liberty etc) distasteful and frankly bizarre as a I dont actually percieve the current America to be particularly more free than the current NZ. Its a huge turn off to most especially young Kiwis who recognize the USA as being rather far from an ideal role model for NZ.
Their press releases, website, policies etc are worded in an over the top inflammatory way which reduces their credibility.
They intend to totally reform the NZ political system by introducing a constitution, which is too ambitious for a nation like NZ, whereas I would prefer to work within the current MMP framework, either as part of the opposition, or a coalition partner, at least initially. Lets face it, the Labour Party and Helen Clark havent done that terrible a job, NZ in general is better suited towards slow gradual improvements rather then anything too radical and revolutionary, and many people are in fact happy with the current level of socialist meddling in private lives. However I believe just as many people are interested in opposing such meddling, and thus would like to see a party in Parliament address those peoples needs.
They base their politics rigidly on the philosophy of objectivism which I dont believe is especially productive. Most political issues are after all fairly subjective, and the truely objective issues are mostly self evident and fairly common sense and represented by values that are upheld by most parties anyway.
Anyone who wants to be a part of this please get in touch.
Thats the Brush Tailed Possum and yes I do enjoy shooting your 'ironically' protected species, which now have a population in NZ of over 70 million.
But they actually have WMDs! They have to get rid of them before we can invade.
"Hello 911? I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!"
Which may be fine in yor country but in the UK you can be jailed (and people have been) for using undue force in their own homes for attacking burglers.
That's why you have to give them an option such as "Cake or Death?". If there's enough of them, eventually you'll run out of cake and then their only option will be "or Death". A smart robber will have the chicken if it comes down to it.