On Wed, 2004-09-22 at 22:59 +1200, Nick Rout wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-09-22 at 21:52, Wesley Parish wrote:
> > From my point of view, that DMCA-like extension to copyright has the effect of 
> > outlawing the use of the brain:
> > "so that the prohibition against the making, importing, hiring and
> >        selling of devices, services or information designed to circumvent
> >        "copy protection" be expanded to cover devices, services or
> >        information that circumvent technological protection measures that
> >        protect all rights provided to copyright owners, including
> >        communication, not just copying;"
> > 
> > Bang goes the New Zealand Knowledge Economy if you can't get intimate and 
> > physical with your nearest and dearest to make a device a.k.a. a child's 
> > brain, with the ability and capacity of circumventing "copy protection"!  And 
> > then it suggests outlawing the hiring of such a device as an individual human 
> > equipped with a  brain with the ability and capacity of circumventing "copy 
> > protection".
> > 
> > To put it bluntly, it doesn't make any sense. 
> 
> 
> actually what you are saying doesn't make sense Wesley.

Well, if you read into it carefully with a legal-language eye? :-)

My child, because he has a brain, has the ability and capacity to
"circumvent copy protection" at some stage in the future.

And I, being the father, am therefore part of "making ... [a] device ...
designed to circumvent copy protection".

But, the get-out clause (sorry Wesley) is that a human being is not
*primarily* designed for circumventing copy protection, that is a
secondary activity, and therefore it doesn't apply :-)

> > > What to CLUGers think? Does anyone have pointers to mailing lists /
> > > groups in NZ keeping an eye on changes to copyright law?

As has been suggested, NZOSS is a good place for this, and IIRC there is
also an Open Politics list (not about software) somewhere - check the
NZOSS archives for a mention.

-jim

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