NZOSS Submission on ACTA

The New Zealand Open Source Society has made a submission on ACTA to the Ministry of Economic Development. The submission explores the relationship between legislation of the United States passed in 1998 called the DMCA with provisions in the Copyright Amendment Act 2008 and the leaked provisions in ACTA. The NZOSS does not wish to see a regime where citizens will be disconnected from the Internet based only on notices from rights holders, but rather maintain a position where proper judicial oversight and process will be maintained. Video here.

The scope of submissions as requested by the Ministry of Economic Development was limited to specific questions about Internet Service Providers. The NZOSS felt that there were far broader concerns about the ACTA process itself and the impact of the entirety of ACTA, not just the provisions around Internet Service Providers. As a consequence the submission was far broader that that requested.

The submission details the background of ACTA such as the select committee process which lead to Section 92a being removed from the Copyright Amendment Bill, before it was reinstated prior to being passed into legislation. As a result of Section 92a being retained the Creative Freedom Foundation was formed, and a Internet Blackout campaign was run to bring attention to the issue.

It is in this context that the NZOSS wishes to ensure that the secret negotiations of ACTA do not override the democratic process in New Zealand and reverse the progress we have made. To this end the NZOSS has made this submission and is also supporting a larger community effort that is organising PublicACTA, a event occuring at the same time as the secret meeting of ACTA members in Wellington.