Colin Jackson speaks regularly on National Radio about New Zealand Internet matters. Recently he spoke about Section 92A of the Copyright Act:

… it says that ISPs have to cut people off the Internet if a music company accuses them of copyright infringement. There’s no trial, no proof, and no accountability on the record companies to get it right.

[Via : Cutting off your Internet if you are accused of infringement.]

In other countries the music companies have a history of accusing anyone and everyone of copyright infringement by downloading or sharing material. Cases have been thrown out of court because the accused didn’t own a computer, or even was dead!

Section 92A of the Copyright Act goes against our well-establised right to a trial. As written, Internet access can be cut off if someone is accused of copyright infringement, not if they are found guilty of it.

This is something we should know about, and probably act on. Read Colin’s post for full details, and the link to an article:

which quotes the head of the music lobby as saying that it would be totally unacceptable for them to have to prove their case in court.

Links:

• Copyright Act 1994 No 143 (as at 01 August 2008), Public Act, 92: Adaptations
• Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 No 27, Public Act, Part 1 Amendments to Parts 1 to 5 of Copyright Act 1994

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Recently Paul Reynolds talked with Jim Mora on Radio New Zealand National about Three community projects. He mentioned Kiva, a microfinance scheme; laptops for kids in Niue through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project; and a New Zealand group called Aotearoa Peoples Network:

The Aotearoa People’s Network is about providing free access to broadband internet services in public libraries so that all New Zealanders can benefit from creating, accessing and experiencing digital content.

Paul wrote in his blog:

I love talking about this project - which is tasked to deliver fast/free Internet access, plus new machines, plus some open source community story telling software, Kete, to a growing number of public libraries in New Zealand.

The current offerings are primarily rural. There is a blog, here, which tells some interesting tales. also, a map of the project libraries, here, plus the official site is here

[Via : McGOVERN ONLINE: Three community projects with Jim Mora - Radio New Zealand National.]

Paul has links to the mp3 file of his interview.

Side note: Radio NZ has many interesting technology ’slots’. Subscribe to the podcasts to stay well-informed about what’s going on with technology and the Internet.

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