The ACTA countries have agreed to release the draft ACTA text after the latest round of talks conclude in Wellington.
This is an important victory for the principles of open democracy – our government shouldn’t be negotiating treaties in secret that take away our rights.
Continue reading First battle won – ACTA text to be released
It’s going to be a week of ACTA in Wellington, New Zealand.
The Ministry of Economic Development asked for submissions about the Digital Enforcement Provisions in the ACTA treaty.
While we object to New Zealand’s participation in the treaty, we still thought it was worthwhile to respond. The full text follows (headings correspond to those in the request for submissions), but the 8 recommendations we made are:
Continue reading Submission about Digital Enforcement Provisions in ACTA
With the leak of the full text of ACTA, complete with every nuance of positions by the various countries involved, we have the first full and complete picture of what our government is up to.
Here’s five things we learnt from reading the treaty.
Continue reading Five New Things About ACTA
We’ve written about the unhealthy secrecy around the ACTA treaty negotiations. As New Zealanders we believe we have a right to know what our government is doing on our behalf.
We wrote to the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to ask them some questions about ACTA under the Official Information Act. We just got our answers back (scanned PDFs of the MED letter – 3MB, MFAT letter – 3MB, and cabinet paper – 6MB) and we have to admit that we weren’t very surprised to see more excuses not to release official information than we saw information.
Continue reading ACTA – The NZ Official Information Requests
The next round of ACTA negotiations starts on Tuesday in Guadalajara, Mexico. Representatives from each participating country, including New Zealand, will be talking further about what the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement treaty should include.
What will the New Zealand representatives be saying? Will they be supporting the inclusion of the new internet-related policies submitted by the USA at Seoul or will they be suggesting that the treaty should stick to the “counterfeiting” in its name and leave copyright for a more appropriate forum such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation?
Continue reading ACTA secrecy corrodes democracy
Yesterday, Hilary Clinton made a speech committing the USA to the cause of internet freedom.
We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas.
Continue reading Tech Liberty welcomes US defense of internet freedom
Commerce Minister Simon Power released a statement revealing an intended framework and policy to replace Section 92A of the Copyright Act. This section, meant to come into force this year, was suspended after a broad coalition of rights holders, ISPs, and stakeholders opposed the original vague and ill-defined wording.
Continue reading Media Release: Tech Liberty welcomes planned Section 92A revision
Ministry of Economic Development (MED) spokesperson George Wardle, at a briefing in Wellington today, said that they could not release the draft text of the treaty as all parties to the negotiation had agreed to keep it confidential. He also refused to say who in New Zealand they had consulted with and refused to reveal what New Zealand was arguing for. The Ministry of Economic Development is working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade representing New Zealand’s interests in the negotiations.
Continue reading Media Release: New Zealand has no place in anti-democratic ACTA negotiations
Why New Zealand should withdraw from the secret and anti-democratic process around the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) treaty negotiations.