Comments on: New Zealand digital copyright law

By: Rekrul

Rekrul — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:01:27 +0000

“That’s why New Zealand’s anti-circumvention law, while better than the United States’ DMCA, is still not “anti-circumvention law done right.” That would be no anti-circumvention law at all.”

The way it used to be before copyright enforcement was deemed to be the most important issue in the world.

By: Matt Fitzpatrick

Matt Fitzpatrick — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:50:36 +0000

Is New Zealand’s anti-circumvention law good? Not really.

More to the point, it highlights how unnecessary anti-circumvention really is. If New Zealand’s “anti-circumvention law done right” has fair uses staying fair, and infringing uses staying infringing, what’s the point of anti-circumvention in the first place?

Here’s the point: relaxing the burden of proof for the deep-pocketed serial copyright infringement plaintiffs. They lobby the globe every year to buy lucrative special interest laws just like this, knowing they’ll recoup their investment by suing every competing copying, recording, or distribution technology on the planet. That’s really all there is to it.

That’s why New Zealand’s anti-circumvention law, while better than the United States’ DMCA, is still not “anti-circumvention law done right.” That would be no anti-circumvention law at all.

By: Zorg

Zorg — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:23:42 +0000

In other words, the anti-circumvention provisions do not apply to devices that “only controls access to a work for non-infringing purposes.”
No anti-circumvention for non-infringing (region free) dvd players.

By: Just my two cents

Just my two cents — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:16:47 +0000

If I remember correctly, New Zealand has kept a stand that region encoding is illegal, and that region free DVD player are sold there.

My Kiwi friend said that this was because they were none too happy to find that their video viewing was limited, only because they lived in New Zealand.

Just my two cents

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:39:33 +0000

^^ I think (and hope) the latter.

By: Rekrul

Rekrul — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:06:47 +0000

I’m not sure I understand the first point. Are they saying that region codes aren’t included in the list of TPMs that people are allowed to circumvent for otherwise legal uses? Or does it mean that the law doesn’t even apply to region codes, since they’re not really an anti-piracy measure?