Unfortunate APRA Support attracts sharp feedback
21 April 2011
Fact is, it can happen to the best of us, still including your entire email database along with a major press release is never a good look. Indeed it can even prove quite damaging to the cause, as APRA's communication staff have this week discovered.
An APRA NZ media release, dated April 18 and titled 'APRA Supports Government Commitment to Creator’s Rights', was sent out following last week's passing in Parliament of the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill. It began by saying that the organisation "… is encouraged by the Government’s commitment to the development of an appropriate solution to the issue of unauthorised file-sharing."
Long time music critic and regular Sunday Star Times journalist, Grant Smithies, was among the 250 or so recipients of the email and decided to take the opportunity of access to APRA's mailing list to post his own direct reply.
Long time music critic and regular Sunday Star Times journalist, Grant Smithies, was among the 250 or so recipients of the email and decided to take the opportunity of access to APRA's mailing list to post his own direct reply.
["I’m surprised APRA is so wholehearted in its support of this law, to be honest: very poorly drafted, unlikely to be effective due to innumerable loopholes, removes the basic human right to information that Internet access represents, contains a ridiculous “guilty until proven innocent” clause, and rushed through the backdoor under urgency when the house was supposed to be discussing the ChCh earthquake, largely to bring us in line with requirements of huge multi-national music corporations based in America.
I support producers of creative cultural content such as APRA members being paid for their work, but this shocking law is not the way to ensure that, and I doubt it will make an iota of difference to the fortunes of NZ songwriters (other than eroding their civil rights, alongside the rest of us),
APRA has missed an opportunity for a more considered response to this law change with this press release, which is disappointing,
Regards
Grant Smithies"]
I support producers of creative cultural content such as APRA members being paid for their work, but this shocking law is not the way to ensure that, and I doubt it will make an iota of difference to the fortunes of NZ songwriters (other than eroding their civil rights, alongside the rest of us),
APRA has missed an opportunity for a more considered response to this law change with this press release, which is disappointing,
Regards
Grant Smithies"]
Notably APRA was the only NZ music organisation brave enough to even acknowledge to highly debated and much amended bill's passing - even prime bill promoters RIANZ/PPNZ didn't make comment, presumably so as to avoid any unwanted publicity.
