Posts by Matthew Poole
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Hard News: A Work of Advocacy, in reply to HORansome,
Obviously what we need is for every police patrol to be accompanied by a TV doco crew.
I, for one, do not think that would be a bad idea at all.
There's a proposal to put a video camera in all police cars, to protect both sides of the "transaction". Obviously it's not quite the same as a walking video crew in every car, but it's a big step up on what we have now and it's infinitely more practical than embedding a videographer with every patrol.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
Apologists for them are saying it was the best deal under the circumstances, because if they hadn’t worked with the Nats it would have been termination for anyone caught. It doesn’t ring true.
You may not like it, or believe it, but that's what Labour said in the House on the night . Call it apologism or whatever else you want, but at about 7 minutes into Jacinda Ardern's speech she said exactly what these "apologists" are saying - that Labour's choice was the compromise to have the current Act, or to have the Act with account revocation in immediate effect rather than pending an Order-in-Council.
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Absolute comedy gold from Liam Dann in Granny this morning:
Shanks backed up her case by saying she was pretty savvy on computers. That's like saying that because you are savvy at existing within the dimensions of space/time you're qualified to wade into debates about quantum physics.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Rex Widerstrom,
Do we have a successful business person?
Anderton became general manager of an engineering firm, I believe. He's a dirty capitalist at heart.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Sean Murgatroyd,
But that model certainly is being exploited by patent trolls far and wide.
Patents != copyrights.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Ben Austin,
Good to see Farrar injecting some form of bipartisanship
I consider it very, very telling that Farrar is objecting publicly to National's abuse of urgency.
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Kracklite,
The implication might be that if you don’t lodge a complaint yourself, you don’t care, but I do not believe that of you.
No, I certainly wasn't trying to imply that. More that if you want to be certain that justice is done, don't rely on others doing something that, as you have seen, is not actually terribly difficult. Especially since now, unlike then, there's a properly independent body that has unlimited power to investigate past behaviours.
Good on you for sending the complaint, too. The IPCA is not omnipotent, so being made aware of historic transgressions that may not have been dealt with adequately is important. -
Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Chris Waugh,
Is this presumption of guilt really allowed under NZ’s constitutional law? Is the presumption of innocence and the onus of proof being placed on the prosecution embedded deeply enough in our constitution for this law to be thrown out by the courts? Is that even possible in the NZ system?
Starting in reverse:
No, the Bill of Rights Act is not superior law so the courts cannot overturn legislation that fails to abide by its provisions. It is, in fact, explicitly inferior to all other legislation - if there is a conflict, the other legislation takes precedence.The presumption of innocence is not absolute. You're presumed guilty if you get a speed camera fine, or a parking ticket. So-called "strict liability" offences. Because this is not criminal law (yet), the niceties of presumption of innocence are considered to be somewhat more flexible, since you're at no risk of being incarcerated and the opposing party is not the state (though given the relative resources, I suspect I might rather prefer the state to a rapacious recording company).
It's whiffy, and dubious, but it's not as clear-cut as if this was criminal law that presumed guilt. If they changed this from a lawsuit by the rights-holder to a prosecution by the state, but didn't change the presumed guilt, that would be very odoriferous indeed. -
Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Kracklite,
I’m waiting to discover that there’s a temperature below absolute zero, Kelvin, based on observations of IQ. ;)
I hear that there's a global helium supply crisis...
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Hard News: The file-sharing bill, in reply to Kracklite,
“Perverting the course of justice” would be a good starting charge, I think.
Yes, possibly. But it's not being a cop that stops it being an offence. Maybe write to the IPCA and suggest that they might want to investigate his actions? He's still a serving officer, it seems, so his conduct is fair game.
If you don't think his punishment is adequate, there are avenues available. Use them. Don't just complain on here about how woefully the system deals with its own miscreants.