[mediawatch] Pirates of the Copyright

I was going to skip this but this morning decided, no, I don’t want to. So I rag on another DomPost bit (again with a Greer McDonald byline.)
A regular feature in the Saturday DomPost is “The Insider”, a full-page overview of a major public issue, getting the reader up to speed on what is at stake and what is being said by all parties.
This Saturday, the issue was the copyright act amendment that was recently passed into law. The amendment addresses the digital era, and allows a lot of things that users are doing anyway, such as burning new copies of music for personal use, and getting around artificial access restrictions. However, it isn’t just about allowing things – there are plenty of restrictions made formal here. (The legally keen may want to check out this overview by Canadian copyright law expert Michael Geist.)
It’s an interesting topic. The interaction between new technology and old media distribution methods is contentious. No-one wants creative endeavours to become financially unfeasible, and copyright does tie into this. However, there is a solid argument that copyright’s role in protecting the artist is massively overstated or even just plain wrong. Sophisticated arguments for liberal copyright laws are easy to find, especially online where you can’t throw a virtual stone without hitting someone who follows Cory Doctorow’s take on these matters. (As detailed at uberblog BoingBoing.)
Sadly, this one-pager doesn’t do justice to its subject. Far from it. Just look at the entire list of parties quoted:

• Consumer NZ’s website, pointing out the difficulties of pre-amendment law
• The Internet Society of New Zealand, saying the new law is a “very modest step in the right direction”
• The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry
• The Recording Industry Association of NZ website
• The Motion Picture Association
• The NZ Federation Against Copyright Theft (NZFact)

Incredibly, the Exec Director of NZFact, Tony Eaton, gets about a third of the page to himself, as well as a dramatic boxout saying “What illegal copying is costing each year” (over $200 million, it claims). There is no hint that there is another way of looking at these issues, there is no suggestion that the figures deployed might be crafted to serve the producer’s message, etc etc etc. The bulk of this page is unanswered propaganda. (“Respecting copyright will ensure a vibrant creative economy for New Zealand and a bright future for the next generation of creators.”)
The big photo, of course, shows a teenager downloading some music. The caption is beautiful: “Teenagers downloading music from the Internet are targets of a campaign to have them respect creativity.” Notice the framing, swallowed completely from Eaton’s propaganda? Copyright isn’t about respecting corporate authority, it’s about respecting creativity. That, in fact, is the name of a competition run by NZFact: the “Respecting Creativity” contest.
None of this is new. It is, in fact, depressingly old, and this page is a huge missed opportunity to shed some light and get beyond the corporate spokes-fronts. No comments from musicians and artists, who almost without exception have considered and insightful and often fierce opinions on digital download copyright. (Needless to say, they don’t all agree.) No comments from anyone at all connected with the counter-copyright movement. Heck, even the aforementioned Cory Doctorow devoted space on BoingBoing to the merits of the new NZ law.
I am saddened that the issue page in the DomPost was turned over so thoroughly to the corporate propaganda machine. There are definitely sound arguments for copyright protection and enforcement, but this page doesn’t go near them and doesn’t even seem aware there are arguments against.
Verdict: DomPost = FAIL
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And on the subject of copyright stupidity – when you put a DVD in your DVD player and it forces you, every single time, to sit through a long advertisement against piracy? Well, you know what doesn’t treat you with that kind of disrespect? Pirated DVDs. Just saying.