Do we have/do we need an EFF-equivalent in NZ?

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mdf

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#171358 15-Apr-2015 10:13

I've been following the thread about the anti-global mode lawsuit with interest.

CallPlus is/has been sold to M2, who have indicated that they will consider discontinuing the service. Personally, I'd really like to see a court decision on the matter to clarify the law, but I realise that CallPlus isn't going to take a court case in the public interest if it doesn't also align with their commercial concerns.

In the US, the EFF does some awesome work intervening in this sort of case with something of a more objective/public interest position.

Do we have an equivalent here? Is this something InternetNZ does? Does EFA (Australia) do any work here?

If NZ doesn't have an EFF, do we need one? Would anyone else join one?

I'm not of the "it's the internet, everything goes" school of thought - I definitely see a need for things like copyright and patents, just not necessarily in the way they are used at the moment.

SaltyNZ

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#1284546 15-Apr-2015 10:40

The NZ Open Source Society fulfills some of that role in NZ. InternetNZ does some too, although some people have differing views on the effectiveness of INZ for various reasons I won't bother going into right now.

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nickb800

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#1284617 15-Apr-2015 11:45

My take is that global mode is a little bit fringe and possibly viewed as the dark side of the net by some, so would be risky for an eff-like organisation here compared to stuff like net neutrality. It would risk working relationships with more conservative groups like government departments.

Personally I don't think that global mode is the dark side of the net, but I'd imagine the big players would amp up their PR machines with FUD if there was a big court case, and many people would believe it

muso

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#1284723 15-Apr-2015 13:55

Tech Liberty also helps fill this role.

However part of what makes EFF really brilliant is its ability to intervene in cases, or provide pro-bono legal representation to bring or defend cases that need it.

On the first point, USA law allows people to put their hand up and ask the Court to listen to their argument if that argument might be helpful. NZ law is a lot more restrictive, so much so that I can't really see that sort of thing happening at all here. To take part in a court case in NZ, you generally have to show you will be directly affected some way by the outcome.

On the second point, if you had an organisation that had enough money to fund the legal costs of cases in a certain area, there's nothing would stop it from spending money and doing that. However the law as it stands would prevent an organisation that provides legal advice **itself** being run by anything other than a bunch of lawyers. I also have my doubts about whether such an organisation would qualify for charitable status although that could maybe be argued depending on what "area" is being supported.

DonGould

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#1285563 16-Apr-2015 12:56

There's a host of issues in this global mode stuff.

What is the noise we're seeing this week really about?

There was talk about wanting NetFlix and others to put server resource on this side of the planet. Now they've done that we seem to have a move to make people stop pulling content from the servers on the other side of the planet and start using the local ones.

Is this current noise about net neutrality or is it about just the opportite?

Like the rest of you, I read the posts about the differences in choice of content on these services globally. I read the noise about bullying the smaller ISPs to shut down a tunnel service company.

But is there really a big problem to get flustered about here, or are we just in the center of a well organized campaign to drive users to start using the resource that's been put in place in Sydney to service this part of the planet?

Oh, and OP, 'geekzone.co.nz' .... as others have pointed out, here in .nz we have a bunch of different hangouts for these issues. It tends to cause a moderation of the issues and get a good balanced clam response.

D

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SaltyNZ

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#1285597 16-Apr-2015 13:36

DonGould:
What is the noise we're seeing this week really about?

It's about Sky not being happy that some ISPs are making it easy for people to pay less money to Sky. Pretty straightforward, really. The other guys are jumping on board because it affects them too, but I would be very surprised if Sky wasn't driving the whole thing. They have the deepest pockets, and the most to lose.

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mdf

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#1285612 16-Apr-2015 13:53

muso: I also have my doubts about whether such an organisation would qualify for charitable status although that could maybe be argued depending on what "area" is being supported.

Up until the end of last year, I would have agreed with you. But the Supreme Court/Greenpeace have had other things to say.

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DonGould

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#1285622 16-Apr-2015 14:14

SaltyNZ:
DonGould:
What is the noise we're seeing this week really about?

It's about Sky not being happy that some ISPs are making it easy for people to pay less money to Sky. Pretty straightforward, really. The other guys are jumping on board because it affects them too, but I would be very surprised if Sky wasn't driving the whole thing. They have the deepest pockets, and the most to lose.

ya let's blame big bad evil sky like we always do!...

...or is it the SCX shareholders who are looking at all the traffic heading over to .au on the new cable and the sudden drop in their revenues?.... oh hold on, that would be the other side wouldn't it? or is it?

Or is it a call from Uncle Sam to the kiwi counter parts following one of John Key's recent trips up to...

or is it John Campbells team just trying to get some more viewers not they've figured out that people are watching light box for news now, rather than his show...

....grrrr... can't type more... head hurting... neeed tooooo rreeeeplaceeeee tin foil hattttt aggggain.....

Seriously, I have no idea what's really going on. I have no idea who's driving the noise. The fact it is noise is obvious and I suspect it will die down soon enough. These things seem to.

Reality check for a second, I don't actually think many past industry really care.

You might be right Salty, Sky might be in to loose some more customers, but the folk who suggested that people are just going to smoke and drink less and have more and more of these different services, might be right too.

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