Some may have heard about the ACTA negotiations that have been occurring for most of this year.
ACTA stands for "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement", and is a treaty currently being negotiated in private by a number of governments including our own.
The concept behind the treaty is sound - an attempt to standardise copyright and intellectual property law across multiple countries. That in itself is a good thing. However what is starting to cause some concern is what this actually means.
Firstly, however, I just want to point out that NZCS has consistently and repeatedly stated support for the concept of Copyright. Whilst some groups oppose the mere concept of limiting the ability to take someone else's work and gain from it, NZCS believes the concept of Copyright and Intellectual Property is solid - artists and creators should have the right to protect their work.
However that right should be balanced with the right of individuals and organisations to have unfettered access to the massive informational resources and services of the Internet.
You may remember a year or so ago Hon Judith Tizard pushed through S92a of the Copyright Act which could (and was) interpreted to mean that ISPs had to police what users were doing on the Internet, and effectively cut off the internet connection of those that had been accused of copyright violation.
NZCS and many others spoke out loudly and vocally about this, and about the fact that in this day and age the punishment really didn't fit the crime. Additionally, action such as cutting off the Internet connection of families, businesses, libraries and schools on accusation alone breached the principles of natural justice and unnecessarily removed the rights of victims of this law.
In the end the campaign spearheaded by the Creative Freedom Foundation, a group assembled specifically to put forward an alternative view than that of the recording industry associations, and supported by NZCS and others, had the effect of raising awareness of the issue which led to it being canned by Prime Minister John Key himself.
However that's all history now, although it's fair to say that many in the IT space are concerned that this almost came into law, and there are certainly some who believe the whole matter was conducted in bad faith. The process of drafting the alternative copyright legislation is ongoing.
In amongst all of this is the secretive ACTA agreement. ACTA's a treaty being spearheaded by the United States, the European Community, Switzerland and Japan, but also including Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Canada and the European Union.
In and of itself, there's nothing unusual about treaty and agreement negotiations - they happen all the time. What's a little unusual about this one is the cloud of secrecy surrounding negotiations. NZCS have previously noted this and expressed concern to the NZ Government regarding the secrecy and received general reassurance that it wasn't concerned with online piracy by individuals (and hence the sorts of issues raised with S92a) - it was to provide a global mechanism to target those breaching copyright for commercial gain. We've since taken a "wait and see" approach, keeping an eye out but not pushing the matter further until more information came to light.
Sadly, it now appears more information has come to light, and if correct it's not looking good.
Canadian Law Professor Michael Geist has
written a short analysis of a leaked chapter currently under negotiation which, if legitimate and adopted by NZ, would mark an enforced return to the discredited Section 92a approach.
One thing to remember, of course, is that this is analysis based on alleged leaked drafts. The document may not be genuine, may not be what the final product looks like, and could be resisted during negotiations, however it marks a significant shift from earlier indications which were that the discussions were only focused on commercial copyright infringement (ie people making money from copying other people's work, rather than individuals knowingly or unknowingly copying a CD or TV programme for no commercial gain).
You can rest assured that we'll be keeping a very close eye on developments and have requested a meeting with the NZ negotiating team on their return to NZ, however it's fair to say we view the alleged content, and potential ramifications, with significant concern.
I'm sure you'll be hearing more about ACTA in the days, weeks and months to come.
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Yet it appears a key part of ACTA is requiring signing countries to adopt similar legislation.
Atrocious.