Ars Technica has a story on our new copyright law that makes very interesting reading. It underlines the point I made earlier in the week that it could have been worse:
Canadian law professor Michael Geist points out that its anticircumvention rules are quite progressive. Unlike the DMCA in the US, the new law allows people to bypass DRM if the intended use is legitimate, it explicitly allows format shifting and timeshifting, and it refuses to protect region-coding of movies and games.
As Geist puts it, "the anticircumvention provisions are arguably the best of any country, since they are compliant with WIPO, limited in scope, and seek to preserve fair dealing rights."
Back home, Steven Price envisages some obvious problems with the new act's "notice and takedown" provisions.
And John Drinnan reports that the local branch of the Motion Picture Association (er, not the "Movie Producers Association", John) is considering setting up its own legal movie download site. On past form, wholesalers of digital content tend to do a stinking awful job of acting as their own retailers, but I suppose it shows positive intent.
The usual chorus is warming up already over Al Gore's new climate chage presentation, New Thinking on the Climate Crisis, exclusive to Ted.com. I think it's worth watching on that basis alone.
Christchurch's Shocking Pinks seem hipper than ever out there in tastemaker land.
The folks from The Other News, a satirical online newspaper from New Zealand, say they're ready for their close-up now. Go look.
Via WFMU, an amazing exhibition of old blank cassette inlay cards. No, really.
Also on WFMU: links into what looks like an archive created by FolkStreams.net, "a fantastic site generally devoted to the American working class experience as it pertains to music." And the observation that in the chorus of Motorhead's 'Bomber', Lemmy sounds like he's barking "Obama!". Really.
The Auckland gig guide Mukuna is now selling a featured gig listing on its home page for $35 a day. All other listings remain free.
For your pleasure on PA System, the new video for the Phoenix Foundation's 'Bleaching Sun' (featuring a top turn from Dion Nash), and a Public Address Radio interview with Darryn Harkness of New Telepathics.
And just a reminder that if you want to embed any Media7 clips in in your blog, you can grab them from our YouTube channel. Feel free to subscribe to the channel too. The quality of the clips is quite good, so it's a useful alternative channel for those of you struggling with the TVNZ-hosted video for whatever reason.