The passing of the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill while Parliament was under urgency dealing with Earthquake legislation can only, at best, be described as rather sneaky. What makes it even worse though is having to watch our politicians discuss and make laws based on technology that they quite clearly have no idea how it works.
I must credit Chris Barton here from the Herald as his article on the shameful displays of knowledge shown towards the technology being regulated is well put together and makes it glaringly obvious they need help. I suggest you read the article.. the quotes may just make you laugh, although they made me angry! The worst has to be Jonathan Young from National trying to tell us he believes the Internet is much like what SkyNet was in those Terminator movies we all loved. "In that film a computer system called Skynet ruled the world. It was like the internet today."
So this brings me to the beginning of a journey for me. A journey I hope won't end too quickly, but a journey none the less. I will be sending away my application to join the Pirate Party of NZ tomorrow. I have no idea where this will lead, but we can't continue to let our politicians create laws about technology they don't even understand. It's only going to get worse as more technology evolves even faster creating increasing moral dilemmas for decades to come.
I leave you with this great speech from Nationals Katrina Shanks. The best part is at 2:20.
I haven't really done much reading up on this but your blog makes some good points. I have actually enjoyed listening to some of these readings.
ReplyDeleteThanks ! Spread the word, it's a dangerous law we're implementing here !
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