The copyright industry’s lobbying efforts are, no doubt, being re-routed to New Zealand at this point in time. The good news is that the “guilt-upon-accusation section” section stands a very good chance at being wiped clean in the process. Great news for those who knew that freedom of speech was in jeopardy thanks to that provision.

The fascinating report comes from the National Business Review which says that law makers in New Zealand are freezing any new amendments to the New Zealand copyright act of 1994, possibly scrapping the whole copyright act and starting again. One of the themes seems to be criticisms of a “band-aid” approach through countless amendments to the act. The article says that, among the things that would be discussed is allowing artists who create a certain kind of work retain copyright control rather than who commissions it. It doesn’t seem to be clear if that affects record contracts, but since it’s possible that the whole law is about to be canned and started again, there would be no doubt that this would be among many things to be discussed.

Of course, a huge area of contention for many New Zealander’s is section 92a which contains, what consumer rights advocates dub, the “guilt upon accusation” amendment which was passed last year to the dismay of many. When the provision was passed, many website administrators in New Zealand participated in a net-wide blackout protest by blacking out logo’s of their websites to demonstrate the destruction of internet free speech thanks to the new law.

The news is a major victory for many. Creative Freedom New Zealand commented on how new provisions like a New Zealand version of “Fair Use” and safeguards for satire and parody would be welcomed additions to the new legislation. Another thing that would be a welcomed addition would be the protection of consumers from DRM (as opposed to DRM protections like anti-circumvention laws which have frustrated many innovators throughout the world and quite easily have blocked some forms of innovations)

Of course, something like this will no doubt take a lot of time. Copyright laws are a complicated thing to scrap and re-write – especially in this day and age. Still, there’s plenty of potential positives to come from this like blocking future iterations of a three strikes provision. We will be waiting to see what comes from this.

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