It’s taken a while to get it organised, but Labour will hold another copyright forum, this time in Auckland, on 8 July. And anyone’s welcome who has an interest in the copyright issue and who will make a positive contribution.
Labour organised a forum in late March in Wellington and invited representatives from the rights holders, ISPs, internet users and other associated interested persons. That meeting was attended by about 30 people, including six Labour MPs (myself, Grant Robertson, Lianne Dalziel, Trevor Mallard, David Cunliffe and Maryan Street). Out of that meeting came a series of themes and issues that needed further discussion. Because of the number of people who wanted to attend but couldn’t (because they either lived in Auckland or just couldn’t make it) I said we’d have another discussion soon.
The forum will be held at:
Freeman’s Bay Community Hall
Function Room
52 Hepburn St, Freeman’s Bay
6pm-8pm
Wednesday 8 July
If you can make it that would be great. Please feel free to pass this invite on. Please RSVP to clare.curran@parliament.govt.nz
The objective is to canvas the wider issues around copyright, including discussion of what’s been ocurring overseas, in France, the UK and Sweden. Lessons to be learnt and ideas for how to develop a wide-ranging copyright policy that embraces the digital age, protecting rights holders, not disadvantaging ISPs going about their business, promoting access to information and building public interest around why copyright is important.
Labour hopes to make a positive ongoing contribution to discussions about copyright. It’s one of the major issues in the crossover between the arts and the communications and IT industries. We need to get it right and we need to take a wider view than the National Government appears to be doing right now.
And anyone’s welcome who has an interest in the copyright issue and who will make a positive contribution.
That’s Labour party members excluded then.
NZ needs to reassure Google that it can offer access to all scanned books here without fear of lawsuits. Google is setting up the world’s most massive library, but it is going to restrict access to the USA only because other countries could bash them over the head with restrictive copyright laws. Even countries like NZ allow libraries the right to lend out books without paying a royalty each time someone checks something out. This is just a big, world-wide library. And if someone has a problem with the ads they will place along the edges, just look at that as the vending machines (or other paid services) you often find in a library.
Kiwis need access to that resource. Give Google what they need to provide access here, and proactively work towards an international regime that will make this resource available everywhere. Imagine people in Mali or Sudan being able to have access to all the world’s books with the investment of a computer and Internet connection.
And of course there is the benefit to the disabled. Reading ordinary, paper books presents the blind with serious problems. When books are scanned and text-readable, there are software programs which will read the text out loud. And for those with vision problems, JAWS can be used to magnify text and make it easier to use.
Google’s online library will be so significant that it should be recognized by UNESCO as a world treasure. Let’s make sure the whole world, including NZ, has access.