Black Out Your Twitter Photo: NZ Copyright Law Protest Goes Viral
Social networks are making it increasingly easy to organize and propagate protests. One that caught our eye today is the New Zealand Internet Blackout, which is using a variety of Internet services to protest against a new law in New Zealand - the Guilt Upon Accusation law 'Section 92A'. This law may have major implications for Internet users in NZ, because it calls for internet disconnection "based on accusations of copyright infringement without a trial and without any evidence held up to court scrutiny." This law is due to come into effect in New Zealand on February 28th. The Blackout is in force on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and various websites/blogs.
Many New Zealanders have joined the protest against this law by blacking out their Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or Bebo photos - and even their own websites and blogs. The ReadWriteWeb Ed (a kiwi) has blacked out his Twitter photo, but this viral campaign has spread far beyond New Zealand. The world's third most popular Twitter user, British TV star Stephen Fry, has also blacked out his Twitter photo. Only CNN and Barack Obama have more Twitter followers than Fry, so his support gives the campaign a decent bump.
The blackout is part of a week of action against S92, declares a press release by the Creative Freedom Foundation, a non-profit group in NZ that has similar copyright concerns to those made famous internationally by Lawrence Lessig. The Creative Freedom Foundation will also announce a S92 song remix challenge this week, and "various other initiatives including video commercials and radio broadcasts will follow."
Creative Freedom Foundation Director Bronwyn Holloway-Smith said in the press release that "if the [New Zealand] government choses to keep this law, they will be going against international trends, treating NZ as an international lab-rat for this kind of legislation". Similar legislation has already been rejected in other countries, such as Germany and the UK. Juha Saarinen on The Techsploder calls S92 "arguably the world's harshest copyright enforcement law". He argues that the new law is "there for the large entertainment organisations to terrorise Internet users" and that it "isn't going to help artists and others rights holders."
It is important to note that the law only applies to telcos and ISPs, but that copyright holders (e.g. the entertainment industry) can demand that ISPs disconnect internet access for those people they accuse of copyright infringement. P2P users and website owners who allegedly have copyrighted material on their websites are most likely to be the target. While some of those people may actually be copyright offenders, what has upset the Creative Freedom Foundation is that disconnection can occur simply by accusation - the phrase 'innocent until proven guilty' becomes meaningless.
If you think the protest is worth supporting, you can sign an online petition here - and of course black out your social network profile!
UPDATE: Here's a video about the issue, made by Chelfyn Baxter from theg33kshow.com and voiced by Oliveroo.
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so many crazy people and of course a new kind of protest ...on tweeter. I have the feeling that tweeter is going down... I would more appreciate some protests about the court actions against pirate bay.
The law does apply to telcos and ISPs BUT, it seems any organisation that provides some sort of Internet service is now defined as an ISP.
That means schools, councils, governments, businesses and probably RW/W too count as ISPs. Section 92C that forces ISPs to cut off their customers if they're accused of hosting copyrighted material is very nasty too, especially for businesses with an Internet presence.
I know copyright infringement is wrong and illegal, but one should always be innocent until proven guilty.
Did you said Iraq?
Oh no, it's Kiwiland!
Haha they are officially screwed:-p
Thanks for covering this story ReadWriteWeb
For day two we've just launched The Copywrong Song and a remix contest
http://creativefreedom.org.nz/copywrong.html
That's bizarre! No-trial judgment is the sign of an oppressing country which puts the control before it's society. Well done NZ, you just moved back 50 years and choose Stalin over Roosevelt.
Another thank you for covering this important story.
Its impressive how such local problems become worldwide so quickly.
This kind of measures can prove real handy when (mis)used to deny people free speech rights.
I wonder how long it will take until someone with the power does that. My guess: not too long.
Alas, every time I try to swap my Twitter photo, I get the Fail Whale...sigh. Worth keeping in mind: there may be more of us who want to participate in the blackout but are having technical difficulties.
New Zealand is a ginnepig country for the illuminati to play with and experiariment upon they don't care wheather we like it or not.
We are the first to see the light of day, and we are the first to get some stupid law that they make up forced upon us.
How can they sleep at night when people like us have to be ruled by idiots, puppets for the illuminati and the freemasons.
I can't stand around and be bullied by these pack of crap people, who think they rule everything, there are higher people than them WATCH OUT..
New Zealanders obviousely cannot manage their place. They think that because they are an island that their repressed peoples cannot leave. Lots of Maoris live there. They have boats! Maybe it is time they, the original settlers, the Maoris, took back their nation and sent the nutty Brits back to Queenland.
At the way this insanity is going, we might as well cut YouTube from New Zealand as people could be watching pirated movies and music videos. Seriously, what a ridiculous law we're gonna have to put up with. This would also be a pain for ISP's to worry over something so ridiculous.
Worse case scenario: Other countries follow our (lousy) example. Remove all popular sites as the govt 'assumes' they are sharing copyright content.
As a result I won't plan on buying games, movies or music let alone use the internet as i'll forever get the impression of someone ALWAYS standing behind me.
Summary: This law suckes!
Media content that you could be accused over, could very well in fact be produced with pirated media applications (often very expensive).
You get done for an illegal content download, yet the producer might of used illegal software for producing that content.
This is disgusting...for the first time in my life, I feel disgraced to be a New Zealander.
I'm genuinely appalled that New Zealand is taking an approach like this. Sure, i download music...but i also ALWAYS, without question, buy anything i like and delete anything i dislike. Music has such wildly varying degrees of quality so they're basically saying that because there are those who solely download without buying that they will then disconnect anyone downloading music? Regardless of their intentions?...bad move NZ, very bad.
I can understand copyright issues but if they are reasonable and well-grounded. I feel when when something good appears (as Twitter) it soon gets a lot of protests etc...