December 2009

The release of a cabinet paper today by Minister of Justice Simon Power was a relief to the Creative Freedom Foundation which had been opposing Internet disconnection on accusation. Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Director of the Creative Freedom Foundation was relieved on reading the details of the Cabinet paper, saying ”this new proposal steers well clear of that [disconnection] approach, respecting due process and the principle of being innocent until proven guilty by experts.”

The Ministry of Economic Development have continued to refuse opening of the text of the ACTA agreement currently under negotiation. In a meeting with the Ministry today Don Christie, President of the NZOSS, asked if the Ministry could publish a section of the text. After leaks of the text earlier in the year there is concern that the agreement will force legislative changes that were strongly opposed by a large portion of the New Zealand IT industry, including the NZOSS and InternetNZ.

Don Christie is more than the President of the NZOSS. He has been operating his Wellington based IT company, Catalyst IT for 12 years. In this NZ Herald article he describes the principles he founded his business on, and how the relationship between the open source community and commercial organisations such as his work. Catalyst are involved heavily with the public sector, but are also addressing the needs of educational institutions.