Juha sez, 'As if journalism here in New Zealand wasn't difficult and damaged enough... the government is
proposing to make it worse. 'The unheralded change to "journalistic privilege' is contained in a paper issued by Justice Minister Judith Collins today and proposes a new regime where journalists would have to hand over their sources to a High Court judge who would decide whether they were entitled to claim 'journalistic privilege'. If the court decided there was no case for protecting the source, details would be handed over to the agency seeking the information.'"
— Cory
By Cory Doctorow at 7:56 am Wednesday, Feb 15
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James, a photo retoucher in New Zealand, makes these "de-touched" "polygon hero" posters, 3D representations of familiar comics icons, downrezzed to abstract jaggie forms.
Polygon Heroes
(Thanks, danielpresling!)
By Cory Doctorow at 12:24 am Friday, Jan 20
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New Zealand police, responding from a request from the US government, raided MegaUpload today, arresting founder and CEO Kim ”Dotcom” Schmitz and three "associates." The service, which allowed users to upload files that were too big to email, claimed 150 million users. The entertainment industry alleged that the service was primarily intended to facilitate copyright infringement, since people could use it to illegally share music and movies, but the company claimed that while some users might infringe copyright with MegaUpload, others simply used it to share files that belonged to them. For example, I use a comparable service, YouSendIt, to exchange large MP3 files of my podcast with John Taylor Williams, the sound engineer who masters them. At other times, companies that wanted me to review their movies and music have uploaded them to a file locker and supplied me with the link and password to get them.
In response, a large denial-of-service attack ("OpMegaupload") has been launched against the US Department of Justice, the FBI, Universal Music and other entertainment and law-enforcement sites, by activists operating under the Anonymous banner.
MegaUpload has been waging an online campaign against Universal Music and US law enforcement and trade representatives, first releasing a video featuring famous artists singing an anthem in praise of MegaUpload, then suing Universal Music over false copyright claims that had the video removed from YouTube.
The Swedish Pirate Party strongly condemns raid against MegaUpload
By Xeni Jardin at 8:07 am Monday, Oct 31
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Penelope Lattey of Wellington, New Zealand headed down to her local Occupy with a whiteboard, a marker, her camera, and asked people to explain why they were there. The result: Occupy Wellington: a project.
(thanks, Susannah Breslin!)
By Cory Doctorow at 7:55 am Monday, Aug 1
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New Zealand's new copyright law provides for Internet disconnection for anyone whose Internet connection has been used by someone (or several someoneones) who are accused of three acts of copyright infringement. While the UN has condemned this law as disproportionate and disrespectful of human rights, its proponents often talk of its "simplicity" as a virtue (as in, "well, anyone who thinks about infringing copyright will be able to understand this: you download, you lose your network connection").
But as this three-page flowchart from the Telecommunications Carriers' Forum demonstrates, the process of disconnection is so ramified and baroque that it requires deep study just to get your head around, and easily answering questions like, "How do I appeal this?" is anything but simple.
Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act - process diagrams
(Thanks, Juha!)
