Mar 09
26
Amendments To NZ Copyright Laws Deferred
The proposed amendment to New Zealand's copyright laws that was to come in place originally several weeks ago have been put on hold. The amendment, entitled Section 92A, dealt specifically with the impact of new technologies.
The Prime Minister of New Zealand has apparently asked the Justice Minister to rewrite the amendment from the ground up. There is no precise time frame for this that has been announced.
What the content industry wanted was for Section 92A to give them the ability to make the ISP's the responsible party, and therefore the proxy taxman, in the fight by content companies to monetize content in the wild west world of the Internet.
By positioning themselves in this way, the content industry, unfortunately took a tactical approach to their rhetoric, leading to the consumers becoming aware and concerned about their position in the ecosystem (quite reasonably).
Clearly the ISP's don't want to be a taxman. Any increase in price point makes them less competitive. And the consumer finds it hard to discern how a monthly connection fee is distributed. So the ISP's were easily able to focus and build the community into a well focused and irate group, rather than a mob.
If the content industry wants a win on the board somewhere in the world – they are going to have to first start to think strategically. And then they are going to have to figure out how to get on the right side of the argument with the consumer.
When the content industry bleats that consumers are ripping off artists, and then rewards top executives with literally tens of millions in bonuses while crying that the industry is rooted, they just look like the bankers who are getting bonuses in spite of driving their companies (and the global financial system) into the ground.
First we need a little bit of humility from the content industry. Then we need to see a real flow through of funds raised through these endeavours going to developing new creative talent. Perhaps that could be through the endowment of a number of chairs relating to content at universities? Perhaps the music industry could fund its own social networking site for unsigned artists…? Perhaps the movie industry could provide scholarships at the Film and Television School? A few moves in the right direction to help people discover their own talent would be a pretty good start….
I know that APRA does this to a certain extent, but the record business in Australia does nothing to help talent get started. I suspect that NZ is no different.
Time to wake up and smell the coffee.