Digital Copyright Workshops

A lot of people should be interested in the Digital Copyright Bill (formally the Copyright (New Technologies and Performers’ Rights) Amendment Bill) before Parliament. I’ve blogged a bit on it before, as has Russell Brown in more depth,

InternetNZ has arranged a workshop in Auckland (Wed 14 Feb) and a workshop in Wellington (Tue 13 Feb) to learn about and debate the issues. These are open to any interested person, and we hope it may encourage people to put in submissions to the Select Committee considering the bill, as well as provide input to the InternetNZ submission.

There’s a great lineup of speakers including:

* University of Auckland’s Peter Gutmann
* technologist Nathan Torkington
* Bronwyn Turley of the Ministry of Economic Development
* barristers Clive Elliott and Michael Wigley
* lawyers from TVNZ and Telecom
* Chip Dawson from NZ Software Association
* Internet and music commentator Russell Brown
* Victoria University’s Stephen Marshall
* amplifier.co.nz’s Chris Hocquard
* APRA’s Anthony Healey

Specific areas the workshop will cover are ISP liability, technological protection measures, fair use, rights of copyright owners vs. rights of users, and format shifting.

The programme is online as a pdf here. Myself and intellectual property barrister Peter Dengate-Thrush are chairing the workshops.

Those wanting to attend should e-mail InternetNZ. It is free to attend if you are a member of InternetNZ (membership only costs $21). The standard fee for non members is $150, but if this is a barrier to attendance, and you don’t wish to become an InternetNZ member just to attend, please let me know as there can be flexibility for deserving cases (such as students).