p2pnet - rss feed: New Zealanders consulted on ACTA
p2pnet news | Freedom:- In Canada, the Powers that Used to Be are doing their best to keep the public in the dark about ACTA.
“If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas, what would they look like? This is pretty close.”
ACTA is short for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and that’s how David Fewer, staff counsel at the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, summed it up.
Splashed online by whistleblower site Wikileaks, ACTA was, “shrouded in secrecy until a leaked summary of the agreement appeared on the Internet last month,” sparking, “widespread opposition as Canadians worry about the prospect of a trade deal that could lead to invasive searches of personal computers and increased surveillance of online activities,” blogged Ottawa law professor and Internet advocate Dr Michael Geist, adding, “the Canadian government has been among the most secretive of all ACTA negotiating partners”.
However, the New Zealand government apparently plans to keep its citizens in the loop.
They’ll be consulted and, “Contrary to scepticism expressed in blogs and mailing-list discussions, there will be more than one opportunity for public comment on the provisions of ACTA, says George Wardle, who is coordinating local response at the Ministry of Economic Development,” says the Industry Standard, going on there had been fears the consultation will be merely, in the words of one local commentator, “a rubber stamp”.
But, “there will be an opportunity for public comment after we have a text and before [New Zealand] ministers are asked to make a decision,” the story has Wardle promising.
If the ministers decide to proceed, there will be a subsequent “national-interest analysis” which will involve another round of public comment, he says.
And, “If the text presents particular problems of disagreement with domestic legislation, then there will be additional consultation with pertinent parties such as copyright owners and the agencies that will police the agreement, Wardle says,” according to the story.
“What we are seeking [with the present consultation] is information from the public on what should be the focus of New Zealand’s participation in ACTA … what should New Zealand be trying to achieve through participation in the negotiations and what matters should New Zealand seek to have covered in such an agreement,” he says in the Industry Standard.
However, “Wardle was not able to say when a definitive text of the agreement might be available,” it states, adding:
“Exports from NZ are not currently earmarked for ACTA attention as this country is not considered a large-scale source of pirated goods Wardle says.”
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.Stumble It!
summed it up - ACTA, the Hollywood dream: CIPPIC, May 27, 2008
Wikileaks - Wikileaks runs ACTA proposal, May 24, 2008
shrouded in secrecy - ACTA ‘veil of secrecy’, June 10, 2008
Industry Standard - Public will be consulted on copyright policing plan, June 16, 2008
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June 17th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Well done for the New Zealanders.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Took three minutes to open this article to read it. From the response of opening time, it makes me feel like I am back in the days of 56K. Three minutes doesn’t seem like a long time, till you think that each and every article on this page will take the same time to open and worse that if not longer to respond to.
I really like this site, it’s been my home page for a while. Now with the opening times being so long, I click on an article, go to another website, read an article, maybe two, and then I can see one article here. Since the accident at The Planet, the opening times for articles has been atrocious and only the most interesting sounding ones have I even attempted to read. It’s not been so bad because there haven’t been many articles out while you were out of pocket.
I know your trying but if we don’t say anything, how do you know about problems?
June 17th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
^^ I can’t explain this. I was having the same experience for a while but things are now back to normal.
Bob, who looks after the tech end, has tried to find the problem but hasn’t been able to isolate it.
Where are you? And has it been like this unabated?
Cheers! And thanks …
June 17th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
For the first time, this article just opened as it should. Congratulations! First time it has done so since The Planet incident. I also just changed browsers to FF3. Have no idea if that made some sort of change or not.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
There hasn’t been the first time that I have been able to open so much as one page or do one screen refresh, without this long delay. It started at the time of The Planet incident and has continued this way ever since. I live in the Southern US.
So every page change, every article to open, every refresh gives this long delay. Answering responses where an upload of text is required near doubles this time length. So I leave the page open while it is attempting to get the message back to the server, go on to other web sites were I am not seeing any sort of delay. Opening times at other sites measure in such small times, that I can’t blink before they are open and ready for viewing. Only delays seem to be here.