[NZOSS-Openchat] Labour meeting on Copyright

[Peter Harrison]

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday I attended a meeting about Copyright with Labour MP Clare Curran.

http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2009/07/08/one-of-those-magic-moments/

It was very interesting for me personally, as I got to meet and
discuss issues with many of the people that we normally consider our
opponents. There is certainly the aspect that the major multinationals
have influence, but there are also many honest New Zealanders in the
creative industries earning a living from their work. They cannot
necessarily make money off secondary services like we can in software.
Also, I think there is an ethical issue around people taking the work
of others for free - at least when the authors have not given
permission. Just like the NZOSS frowns on copyright infringement of
Microsoft products we cannot justify infringement of other works.

Statistics that both sides agree with indicate that copyright
infringement is widespread. A policy of stringent criminalisation and
punishment would only serve to alienate the customers of authors. A
good point was made that ISP's tend to make less money from file
sharers because they use more bandwidth. To date we have treated this
like a zero sum game; that for citizens to win the authors must lose.
It need not be this way.

One idea might be to introduce compulsory license schemes for ISP's so
that a set amount is paid to a organisation that will distribute the
funds to content providers. In this case books, music, film and
SOFTWARE would benefit from funding. YES! SOFTWARE! Imagine if Ubuntu
could get a cut of that funding based on how many time people
downloaded it or updated it. Imagine if Ubuntu could distribute that
money to open source projects that make up Ubuntu.

The point is we can't just sit on the sidelines throwing stones. We
need to have a honest discussion with all parties and come up with a
solution that we all can live with.

-- 
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime especially so.