/ Cory Doctorow / 7:08 am Thu Dec 10, 2009

Secret copyright treaty meeting coming to New Zealand; activists get ready

An upcoming round of negotiations for the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA, the notorious, punishing secret copyright treaty) is schedulef for New Zealand in April 2010. Under the terms of the treaty, New Zealand could be forced into accepting the "three strikes" rule that was defeated after a lengthy parliamentary battle last year ("three strikes" means that if someone you live with gets three unsubstantiated accusations of copyright infringement, you and everyone you live with loses access to the Internet and it becomes a crime for any other ISP to hook you back up again).

The opposition movement that formed in response to the "three strikes" rule is ready to take action on ACTA, to make sure that New Zealand's information policy is made democratically, and not through secret meetings in back rooms. They are organizing their response to the ACTA negotiations next April, and given their amazing mobilization against "three strikes" the last time around, I expect great things. If you're from .nz or live there now, tell your friends and loved ones about this: your family's ability to communicate, earn a living, get an education and participate in civil society could be jeapordized by the decisions the elite plan on making in your country.

And hey, Mexico! There's an ACTA meeting headed your way in January. Got anything planned?

Welcome | acta.net.nz (via Michael Geist)

Previously:

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  1. I think the world should be concentrating on a more important issues that this. Hello, earth heating up n stuff.. will die because of it. Maybe use the same vigor with creating emmission cap plans…..just a thought

  5. Even though I don’t or ever have lived in NZ, I wish them the best of luck in making sure it doesn’t pass!

  6. I really don’t see the problem. As soon as the three-strikes law goes into effect, start reporting every politician, lobbyist, and (most importantly) RIAA employee you can find for copyright infringement. No proof is necessary, apparently, so it should be simple to cut the entire industry off from the Internet in a week or so.

    1. I wish people would stop downplaying three-strikes with this clever “solution”. You know if this kind of law gets passed there’s either going to be:

      1) Restrictions on who can make the accusations (sorry, corporations and associations only)
      2) Criminal penalties for intentionally abusing the system (similar to perjury for false DMCA notices)
      3) Even if companies/politicians were taken offline (if it was automated maybe), the charges would be quickly reversed

  7. Next meeting: Antarctica! After that: Ulaan Bataar, then St. Pierre/Miquelon, before the final meeting on Midway island.

    1. Antarctica isn’t far away, it’s a five hour flight from New Zealand!

      Seriously though, we get enough crap about being far away from everyone else. But actually we’re just far away from Europe and the Eastern US. I can get to LA in 13 hours.

    1. NZ folks can visit acta.net.nz. It’s been set up to sharing information about ACTA and discuss its implications. It is likely to be an important place for coordinating action.

  10. Ironically, this is when it becomes helpful that most ISPs are owned by big and powerful telcos. As soon as they realise that this legislation will take a lot of money out of their pockets for which Hollywood won’t reimburse them, they will go to the governments and the courts themselves, with the home field advantage! However, I dread the pound of flesh they will get from their customer base when they win.

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