Have been sent this link several times in the last few minutes.
Will post again on this issue as there’s quite a bit to discuss.
Has the internet decimated the entertainment industry or are we living in a new renaissance for both content creators and consumers…
Obama recently scuttled SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the US, but it’s likely another bill will emerge that gives the entertainment industry mroe control over internet distribution of material.
In NZ, the TPPA talks have highlighted increasing concern around our ability as a nation to control our own innovation and creative works and raised questions about our ability to implement our own copyright laws.
Today it appears that the traditional vested interests behind the entertainment industry have been fudging things a bit:
The Sky Is Rising!
For years now, the legacy entertainment industry has been predicting its own demise, claiming that the rise of technology, by enabling easy duplication and sharing — and thus copyright infringement — is destroying their bottom line. If left unchecked, they say, it is not only they that will suffer, but also the content creators, who will be deprived of a means to make a living. And, with artists lacking an incentive to create, no more art will be produced, starving our culture. While it seems obvious to many that this could not possibly be true, since creators and performers of artistic content existed long before the gatekeepers ever did, we’ve looked into the numbers to get an honest picture of the state of things. What we found is that not only is the sky not falling, as some would have us believe, but it appears that we’re living through an incredible period of abundance and opportunity, with more people producing more content and more money being made than ever before. As it turns out… The Sky Is Rising!
I haven’t read it fully yet, but am relieved there is some decent data emerging at last to demonstrate the clear success of new business models which provide content via the internet quickly and at a low cost.
I hope NZ won’t get left behind
SOPA down (for now), yet ACTA was still secretly signed here in NZ in November. Why is our government, the parties that are meant to represent us, signing secret agreements that will allow very much the same damage as SOPA? I only found out about ACTA being signed here through foreign websites since our own media has done nothing to report it in the very least.
Frankly I’m pretty disturbed.
As for your article itself, it should give some indications that the government (and labour) needs to stop supporting things like ACTA / TPPA. Support the emerging artists, game studios, movie studios, not the rich men in the US wanting to steal from them (and us).
Start acting the part and people will start taking note of labour as an opposition party again..
Actually I’ve just found your article on the issue. I’m still feeling more sympathetic with those commenting on the article than with labour though.
http://blog.labour.org.nz/2011/09/29/if-we-sign-acta-what-are-we-agreeing-to/
Why isn’t there more being done to make the public aware of agreements such as this?
The parties “against” this should be kicking up a fuss and screaming about this.
Secrecy and deal behind the public back are not in our interests no matter what “commercial sensitivity” BS is cited.
http://www.newswire.co.nz/2012/04/asset-sales-linked-to-secret-overseas-agreement/
The secrecy and implications for our future are shocking.