Musicians In New Zealand Protesting 'Guilt Upon Accusation' Plan
from the good-for-them dept
One of the biggest problems with various "three strikes" or "graduated response" plans that involve ISPs slowing, degrading or removing internet connections from those accused of file sharing is the fact that they're based on accusations of file sharing, rather than actual proof and conviction. One of the most draconian of such plans has shown up in New Zealand, where the country's copyright minister yelled at those who pointed out how problematic the law was -- insisting that ISPs need to be responsible for stopping file sharing. Of course, many musicians recognize how problematic this is as well, and a bunch of them are getting together to protest the law in New Zealand, pointing out that "guilt upon accusation" is a horrible policy, and, even as musicians, they don't want such actions to be taken in their name.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.
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Filed Under: new zealand, protests, three strikes
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Musicians? what do they have to do with this!!!!
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Re: Musicians? what do they have to do with this!!!!
Musicians speaking out against these laws helps shoot down their claims.
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Due Process
Sounds like a dictatorship.
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Re: Due Process
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Re: Re: Due Process
It would not surprise me if in a generation or two the "commonwealth" countries end up becoming one giant Empire again.
Australia is certainly not about to join up in an empire again, our current prime minister is even making noises about another referendum on becoming a republic (ditching the Queen) though we would probably still stay part of the Commonwealth (basically just symbolic).
There are only a few reasons the last referendum failed, the first being that the queen is like someones nice old grandmother. The other reason is that the prime minister of the time, John Howard - who some might more recently know as George Bush's lapdog - basically only gave us one model to choose which went something along the lines of "just copy the US" (and pretty much everyone agreed that model was a stupid idea).
Essentially if they had just said scrap the queen, we'll keep everything else the same most people would have gone for it. If we were to join any empire (unlikely) it would be the American empire - though some might (and have) argued that we are already part of it. However the actions of the US on the world stage have really turned the public off the US over the last few years.
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It's New Zealand...
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Re: It's New Zealand...
I can't access Torrentfreak from work to see if any are mentioned, but there are a lot of great NZ bands. Apart from the famous ones (e.g. Crowded House, Flight Of The Conchords), I'd recommend reggae bands Cornerstone Roots and Fat Freddy's Drop, drum 'n bass acts Shapeshifter and Concord Dawn, eclectic mix of the above Salmonella Dub, and hip-hop act Che Fu.
Ironically for the authorities involved, I hadn't heard of any of these bands until I was introduced to them by a friend from New Zealand... who let me "borrow" his MP3s of the music. I've bought 4 albums since then from the bands listed above, and have several more weighing down my eMusic queue...
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I wonder
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Seriously, anyone who truly and genuinely believes the RIAA cares one ounce for musicians or their welfare (beyond what financial rewards the RIAA can reap off them) is someone I certainly would not want making any significant decisions for themselves, much less for me.
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This will be interesting...
For My ISP here in New Zealand, sell a special "torrent" package to try to "balance" the bandwidth loading. In discussions with them I found out that 20% of their customers Use 80% of the bandwidth.
Since most of us pay a small fee and then pay by the MB (megabyte or was that megabuck) and I suspect these 20% will be stuck out fairly quickly, dropping the ISPs revenue pretty sharply.
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This is a double-edged sword
If so then there is lots of potential for fun!
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