Baacamp to Blackout

Every social movement starts with conversations, between passionate people willing to collaborate and make a difference. The conversation that sparked last week's internet blackout in New Zealand came from the annual Kiwi Foo Camp AKA Baacamp in Warkworth. Baacamp is an annual gathering of geeks, artists, producers and media people, with fascinating show and tell sessions on cutting edge projects and technological developments.

There were talks about Open Source Articial Intelligence and multi-touch interface systems, a demonstration of a solar powered 3D printer called the RepRap and New Zealand's only electric powered race car. The one issue that affected everyone the most was the upcoming Section 92A (S92A) clause addition to the copyright law in New Zealand. I never dreamed that in a week the issue would have spread around the planet like a virus.

The topic of the last Kiwi Foo session of Saturday night discussed could be done to get the message through to the New Zealand Government about the issues people had with S92A. The clause had originally been taken out after technical experts and a select comittee advised against the measures proposed. In effect this makes anyone who shares their internet access a 'downstream' ISP and legally obliged to cut off internet access upon three accusations of 'copyright infringement'. The only action one can take is to write to the rights holder, which is often an overseas entertainment company. This reverses the basic human right to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and has been rejected by the EU, German and the Uk as unconstitutional and unworkable.

Unfortunately outgoing Labour MP Judith Tizard replaced the clause at the 11th hour against all advice, and with a week left before the clause came into effect it looked likely to go through. Matthew Holliday and Bronwen Holliday-Smith of the Creative Freedom Foundation had been campaigning tirelessly, for the past two months, to represent the growing number of New Zealand artists and copyright holders who did not want S92A in their name. No-one was in support of 'piracy' or copyright infringement, but the majority view at Foo Camp was that the human right of innocence until proven guilty is more important than protecting copyrights. People also felt strongly that cutting internet access off was a draconian measure that far outweighed the alledged crime.

Brenda Wallace from Wellington suggested the blackout idea as a way to spread the message far and wide, and a plan of action was mapped out on a whiteboard. Chelfyn at Mohawk Media was approached to help with making a protest video, and the geeks left Foo Camp on Sunday afternoon with a shared goal which was to try and get S92A of the copyright law delayed or ideally repealed.

The first article about the blackout protest hit the internet on Monday morning, with a piece from Juha Saarinen at Geekzone. The venerable Stephen Fry was contacted at Twitter by Juha Saarinen and Kiwi Foo Camp organiser Nat Torkington asking for his support. As soon as Mr Fry's avatar went black his 200,0000+ followers starting asking why this was. The surge of traffic to the Geekzone servers took them offline for a while coining a new phrase - "my website has been Fry'ed". Later that day Chelfyn recorded the voices for Kangaroo Court and started a mammoth 60 hours animation session.

On Tuesday morning Oliver Driver asked the Prime Minister John Key on the Sunrise breakfast show on TV3 whether he was aware that people were blacking out their avatars worldwide in protest of S92A. The PM said that he was not aware of the protest but that he would look into it. Stephen Fry woke up to find that he had risen to the no.3 spot on Twitter, and US tech blogger and podcaster Leo Laporte, also blacked out his Twitter avatar in support. The Creative Freedom Foundation released the Copywrong Remix Challenge to remix a track by Mike Corb and Luke Rowell / Disasteradio.The Twitter Tag #Blackout became the #1 search on Twitter, beating Heroes, 24 and even the Oscars.

The news of the protest spread through the web and Cory Dotorow posted a story at major US blog Boing Boing: "New Zealand netizens go black in protest of new "no-proof" copyright law that cuts off your Internet on accusation". Richard McManus at Read Write Web blogged about blackout in NZ Copyright Law Protest Goes Viral, and Kiwi Foo co-organiser Russell Brown posted a comprehensive overview to Hard News at Public Address on the S92A issue. The avatar blackout started spread from Twitter on to Facebook, Bebo and Myspace so I made a quick video clip to show my friends lists blacking out.

On Wednesday morning I woke up to find the Kanagaroo Court (NSFW) animation online and getting thousands of video views worldwide. Kiwi FM ran a blackout special on the Radio Wammo breakfast show with podcasts from Russell Brown, the NZ Green Party with Metiria Turei & myself, MsBehaviour from the g33k show. I also talked about the blackout campaign later that day on my Virtual World slot on Radio New Zealand, National. On Thursday at midday geeks in suits carrying black signs gathered outside the Beehive in Wellington. It was a powerful image to see a group of people who are more at home in front of a screen, standing in front of Parliament to show the depths of their concern.

A Stuff story on 'Stephen Fry rails against NZ internet law' hits the front page of social news site Digg, and the Kangaroo Court animation is published at Boing Boing. On Friday more web celebs & supporters joined the blackout campaign including Howard Rheingold, sci-fi author Neil Gaimen, and Xeni Jardin from Boing Boing. In Auckland protesters gather on Queen Street at lunchtime on a rainy day, to show their support for the growing movement which continued to spread through the online social networks. Over the weekend the blackout protesters took a breather before the Big Blog Blackout day on Monday 23rd February, which ended with a most unexpected result. On Monday morning political, business and creative blogs in New Zealand and beyond went black as a final act of protest against S92. Leo Laporte discussed the issue with Cory Doctorow on his podcast show on Twit.TV which is listened to by thousands worldwide.

After a Cabinet meeting a press conference is called where NZ Prime Minister John Key mades the unexpected announcement that he was delaying S92A until March 27th. His plan is to give ISPs and rights holders more time to to come up with an acceptable code of conduct. A Tweet from a very excited Nat Torkington at the press conference reads: "After Cabinet meeting Kiwi govt announce announced delay in impl until 27th mar. if no agreement, will suspend." The news spread through the Twitterverse like the virus it had become and people started to turn their avatars and blogs back on. The blackout campaign is now being talked about as a model for a perfect, peaceful online campaign that can be followed as an example of modern democracy in action.

As Simon Young writes at iJump the blackout approach worked with netizens because it 'shows how it affects them, incites curiosity, takes less than 3 seconds, is spreadable, translates to multiple platforms (eg the blacked out profile pictures, the banner ads, and even the placards used in real-life protests).' Until the end of the month representatives from all sides, the Telcos, APRA, RIAANZ will be meeting to work on a code of conduct with the Telecommunications Carriers Forum.

One new body created from the grassroots up has been the 16,000 + people who have joined the Creative Freedom Foundation. With around half of them from the creative industries they now represent more NZ artists than the Australiasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) and I think they should be given a voice in these discussions.

As I have been writing in the MsBehaviour Files at the Big Idea for the past two years, there are plenty of new ways to make money from music & art online without suing or disconnecting your customers. What we have learned from the blackout campaign is the power of Twitter as a tool for social change. How individuals can stand together to amplify their voices on a global scale, and knowing that together we can make a difference. Associated links: The Telecommunications Carriers Forum Australasian Performing Rights Association Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Creative Freedom Foundation Foo Camp Baacamp Other S92 stories at the Big Idea: Copyright law Section 92A on hold Section 92A Read more MsBehaviour Files