New Zealand Internet Blackout - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The New Zealand Internet Blackout was an online protest spearheaded by the Creative Freedom Foundation NZ against changes to copyright law in New Zealand, most notably Section 92A of the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act.

The protest originated at the 2009 Kiwi Foo Camp

Kiwi Foo Camp

Kiwi Foo Camp, also known as Baa Camp, is an annual Foo Camp, an unstructured gathering of technology industry people and policy makers, that takes place at Mahurangi College in Warkworth, New Zealand in early February. The first Kiwi Foo Camp occurred on 2–4 February 2007, and the second ran 1–3...

in Warkworth and ran from 16-23 February. Internet users changed their avatars

Avatar (computing)

In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...

to black squares, to symbolise what opponents of Section 92A regard as guilt by accusation. In particular, they point to the clause in Section 92A which states "Internet service providers must have policy for terminating accounts of repeat infringers". Additionally protesters were encouraged to sign a petition and/or write to their MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

.

Notable supporters of the Blackout campaign included Russell Brown

Russell Brown (New Zealand)

Russell Brown is a well-known New Zealand media commentator, and the owner of the Public Address community of blogs, and writes Hard News Hard News the blog is based on the Hard News radio slot spoken by Brown from 1991 to 2002 on bFM, an Auckland student radio station...

, Nathan Torkington, Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry

Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...

, Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman

Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

, Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow

Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licences for his books...

, Leo Laporte

Leo Laporte

Léo Gordon Laporte is an Emmy Award winning, American technology broadcaster, author, and entrepreneur. A former resident of Providence, Rhode Island, he now lives in Petaluma, California with his wife Jennifer and two children, Abby and Henry....

, and technology journalist Juha Saarinen who asked Fry if he would help out with the protest.

On 19 February about 200 people, including internet service provider (ISP) representatives, artists, musicians, writers, and bloggers — most of them holding up plain black placards, and some with taped mouths — protested and presented a petition outside Parliament at lunchtime. Wellington-based MP Peter Dunne

Peter Dunne

Peter Dunne is a New Zealand politician and Member of Parliament who leads the United Future political party. He has served as a Cabinet minister in governments dominated by the centre-left Labour Party as well as by the centre-right National Party...

addressed the protesters, announcing that on the previous day he had separate meetings with Commerce Minister Simon Power

Simon Power

Simon James Power is a New Zealand politician. He is a prominent member of the National Party and a cabinet minister. He currently holds the posts of Minister of Justice, Minister for State Owned Enterprises, Minister of Commerce, Minister Responsible for the Law Commission andAssociate Minister...

and Prime Minister John Key over the issue.

On 23 February John Key announced that Section 92A would be delayed until 27 March.

On Monday, 23 March, it was announced that Section 92A would be removed and redrafted

The online petition maintained by the Creative Freedom Foundation has over 17,000 signatures.

Second Blackout?

Anti-piracy legislation was re-introduced in April 2011 by the New Zealand Government under the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill

The Copyright Amendment Act 2011, also known as Skynet law, is an Act of the Parliament of New Zealand which amends the Copyright Act 1994.- Legislative history :...

. Although somewhat watered down from the original Section 92a legislation, it still contained forcible disconnection provisions, and was passed under urgency by all parties with the exception of the Greens

Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand is a political party that has seats in the New Zealand parliament. It focuses firstly on environmentalism, arguing that all other aspects of humanity will cease to be of concern if there is no environment to sustain it...

and two dissident MPs, Chris Carter

Chris Carter (politician)

Christopher Joseph Carter was an independent Member of Parliament in New Zealand, and a former member of the New Zealand Labour Party until his expulsion. Carter was a senior Cabinet Minister in the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand, serving lastly as Minister of Education, Minister...

and Hone Harawira

Hone Harawira

Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Harawira is a New Zealand Māori activist and parliamentarian. He was elected to the Parliament of New Zealand for the Māori electorate of Te Tai Tokerau in the 2005 general election as the Māori Party candidate. His resignation caused the Te Tai Tokerau by-election, held...

. This use of urgency was highly controversial, with many in the Internet community accusing the Government of invoking urgency to push through highly contentious laws. Additionally, many opponents of the new law called for a return of the 2009 Blackout, who also ridiculed the televised performances of several MPs who defended the law. http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/4885041/Controversial-internet-file-sharing-law-passed http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/4887073/Copyright-law-Net-parodists-target-Nat-MPs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IIyk1y9o_8&t=4m45s

External links

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