Tuesday, 17 July 2012 11:08
Kiwi Judge says US is the enemy in copyright law
Written by Nick Farrell
Harvey will be in charge of Dotcom case
A judge who will hear Kim Dotcom's extradition case has referred to the United States as "the enemy" in a discussion about copyright law.
David Harvey has heard parts of the case against the Megaupload founder, who was arrested with three colleagues in January after a request from the United States. Judge Harvey made his views on copyright known during the launch of the "Fair Deal" campaign last week. The campaign is opposing any changes to New Zealand's copyright laws that may form part of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.
The United States entertainment industry is pushing for stronger copyright provisions among the 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region negotiating the deal. Harvey warned in its current state the TPP stop the practice of hacking around DVD region codes. He said that it would criminalise a large number of people.
“We have met the enemy and he is the U.S," he said.
For those of you who came in late, the remark is a play on the line "we have met the enemy and he is us" by American cartoonist Walt Kelly. Auckland University law professor Bill Hodge said the comments could be seen as "unhelpful" as Big Content could claim he was biased against the US copyright law efforts.
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