'Fair Deal' coalition to protest TPP

A "Fair Deal" coalition will be launched at InternetNZ's Nethui today, with a mission to "draw attention to copyright changes under the Trans Pacific Partnership" – a trade agreement being negotiated between the US, NZ and other Pacific Rim countries.

Given the make-up of the coalition (which includes Tuanz, Consumer and The Creative Freedom Foundation), it is a fair bet that the diplomatically-worded "drawing attention to" will involve a lot pointed criticism, if not outright protest.

It's deserved. Probably one issue around the trade pact is the extreme secrecy that surrounds its negotiations, making it hard to gauge what there is to rail against, or not (on June 27, even 130 members of Congress signed a letter asking for more transparency – and the US is supposed to be the side bullying the TPP through to the benefit of Hollywood, record labels, big pharma and other interests).

And while we don't know full details, there are worrying signs that Trade Minister Tim Groser will yield on intellectual property, copyright issues (both close to the hearts of tech and other forward-looking industries) in a trade-off to protect agriculture (read NZCS chief executive Paul Matthew's opinion piece he wrote soon after meeting with the minister: OPINION: TPP - Groser trades away tech to save agriculture. That's from December, an update is in the works for NBR.)

Social media reaction was immediate. Blogger David Farrar, a former InternetNZ vice-president, said, "I would phrase it as not protesting TPP, but asking the NZ government to stick to its current position of rejecting US proposed IP [intellectual property] chapter. There will be an IP chapter. The question is how much resemblance it will have to the draft US one."

Canterbury University economist Eric Crampton weighed in with, "Better to have no deal than a deal with the IP chapter. [The] best is a deal without the chapter."

InternetNZ administers the .co.nz domain and uses the millions it makes from wholesaling internet addresses to advocate on interrnet users behalf and develop and research policy.

The Nethui (or Middle Class, Politically Correct White Guy Meeting as one business publication called it last year) will be keynoted by Minister for Everything Steven Joyce, is taking place today and tomorrow at Auckland's Sky City Convention Centre, sponsored by Microsoft, Google, the Ministry of Business, Enterprise and Employment, TelstraClear, Orcon and others.

Tickets cost $40. So far, around 400 have come through the door.

The Fair Deal coalition launch at 6.30pm, to be hosted by Russell Brown, will be free.

The two-day conference will be on Twitter (@NethuiNZ). 

Live video from the event will be streamed over these services.

Check out the programme here.

Incidentally, with Richard Wood off to a comms role at the half-billion-dollar Xero, InternetNZ is looking for a community manager, and someone to organise Nethui next year. 

Apply here.

RAW DATA: InternetNZ press release

Fair Deal coalition draws attention to copyright changes under the Trans Pacific Partnership

Today, a coalition of New Zealand organisations concerned about changes to New Zealand’s copyright law under the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) will gather to launch the Fair Deal cause. Fairdeal.net.nz is a place for New Zealanders to go to learn more about what’s at stake for New Zealand copyright law under the TPP.

Under the TPP, the United States has proposed that New Zealand change its copyright law in several ways. Changes being considered include lengthening copyright monopolies by 20 to 70 years, making parallel imports illegal, placing onerous legal obligations on Internet Service Providers and increasing civil and criminal liability for copyright infringement. The common thread that draws Fair Deal coalition members together is opposition to these and other copyright changes.

Fair Deal members stand in strong support of the New Zealand copyright negotiators, who, according to a leaked negotiation document, have sought to work within existing legal frameworks in the TPP instead of creating overbearing new ones.

Fair Deal members include InternetNZ (Internet New Zealand Inc), NZRise, the Creative Freedom Foundation, Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, TUANZ and Consumer. All organisations agree that a Fair Deal is one that opens up new trading opportunities for New Zealand without forcing the government to make copyright changes that could damage the economy, chill innovation, further restrict access to content and raise prices of copyright works in New Zealand. Each organisation has certain copyright issues that it is concerned about, highlighting the breadth of the impact that the TPP copyright provisions could have on many sectors across New Zealand.

“All we’re asking for is a Fair Deal,” says InternetNZ Policy Lead Susan Chalmers. “Because the TPP is negotiated in secret, and because trade agreements are not typically at the forefront of our minds, we have this problem of New Zealanders not seeing what is coming – not knowing what changes the TPP will bring to their everyday lives.

“The content industries are at it again – asking more from New Zealand copyright law, wanting to segment this market as much as possible from the rest of the world, despite the fact that we’re just a click away on the Internet. We don’t think that what they’re asking for is fair or reasonable, and we want the public to know about it and have a discussion about the proposed changes before the deal is done and it’s too late to say anything,” she says.

The Fair Deal launch, hosted by Russell Brown of Public Address, will take place on the margins of NetHui, a three-day conference on Internet-related issues. The one-hour event begins at 6.30pm at the Sky City Convention Centre, New Zealand Room 3. Those unable to attend can find a live stream by visiting http://nethui.org.nz/videos.

The launch will feature a brief panel discussion with Don Christie from NZRise, Neil Jarvis from Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, and Susan Chalmers from InternetNZ. An audience discussion session will follow.