Scoop Blog Watch: Red Alert

Opportunity knocks for a bit of leadership #ACTA

http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2010/04/11/opportunity-knocks-for-a-bit-of-leadership/

Posted by Clare Curran on April 11th, 2010

Will try to keep this short and snappy. I’m feeling hopeful this week that the Government will show us it’s got some balls.

After all, we have a fairly major international treaty (trade agreement) a bit hard to know what to call it, being negotiated in our capital.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (and don’t be fooled by its name) is being negotiated in secret by the US, Canada, Japan, the European Union, South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand.

It claims to be about counterfeiting of goods. That’s a valid thing. But it’s not about counterfeiting. It’s about intellectual property and about placing limits on how the internet is used by citizens in all those countries to share information and create content.

Today I called on the government to show some courage and demand that the ACTA talks are made public. Most of the participating countries claim they want transparency.

Yesterday I attended a public conference organised by InternetNZ which drew together more than 100 NZ stakeholders alarmed that their rights and those of all NZ citizens will be compromised under this secret deal.

They released a declaration and a petition. I advise you to have a look. And to ask questions. And to sign.

Everyone reading this post, your families, your friends and colleagues could be affected.

No case been provided for this treaty.

New Zealand’s greatest strength (aside from our environment and our primary production sector) is our intellectual capital. That includes our capacity to be innovative and resourceful as well as creative.

We must nurture, protect and enable these strengths. We mustn’t trade them away and compromise our ability to be innovative by allowing a trade agreement that limits and threatens our creators. As well as the people who want and need to access material for non commercial use.

So I say to the NZ Government listen to what you are being told by your citizens and stand up for the public good.

I can’t put it better than the comment posted by commentator Colin Jackson on my last post Pay attention New Zealand:

What a pity international governments don’t seem to be able to make an agreement to ration finite resources like tuna, atmospheric carbon or fossil fuels, but instead devote their time to making an international agreement enforcing controls over something that costs no resources to copy.

There are a growing number of parliamentarians in the countries represented at the ACTA secret talks who are raising concerns and calling for transparency and for the true reasons for ACTA to be discussed in an open environment. It would be good to see those concerns expressed across our parliament.

PS: Not short but maybe snappy?

ENDS

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