According the the National Business Review, the New Zealand National government is looking at scrapping our current copyright act bill and rewriting completely. Part of the reason is the changing nature of information technology. This is certainly a positive sign as the government recognises that with the rapid changing technological landscape such acts are simply outdated.
The question remains, when will the copyright act be rewritten and who will its contributors be? Certainly, Creative Freedom hopes to contribute to this but the news article declines to mention the government's stance on this.
While this represents an opportunity for supporters of say creative commons copyright this also represents an opportunity for even more stringent copyright laws to be created.
From what I've learnt in university, historically New Zealand has actually had a history of pioneering legislature. For example, Woman's Sufferage climate change and bio ethics. Part of the reason is that we are a small country, have less levels of bureaucracy and are heavily dependent on international trade. Many of these changes and initiatives have been used as examples by larger countries in a positive light.
Have faith in the democratic process and don't forget to have your say when the dialogue begins!
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