be careful in New Zealand free speech is no more, don’t mention the World Cup

Next year New Zealand will be hosting the Rugby World Cup, these days there is a world cup for everything under the sun, but it appears that for business hoping to win over any rugby fans better be careful with what words they use to promote their event or promotion. New Zealand has a little-known of law that restricts using the words 'rugby', 'world' and 'cup' to promote fundraisers, promotions and special events that are not authorised by the Rugby World Cup committee and each breach could cost up to $150,000.

The bill that outlaws this is The Major Events Management Act 2007, (MEMA) and it was passed basically to give the Rugby World Cup unfettered control of the key words associated with the event. We are told that in all seriousness that common sense will be used when considering the act, pity common sense could not prevail prior to the passing of this blatant removal of New Zealanders rights.

The major problem with laws like this is that the World Cup of what ever sport or activity is a celebration of the event and that community support outside of the official sponsors is crucial for success this tends to amputate that type of support. I would ask what harm can the local school in Edendale near Eden Park using signage using the words "Rugby World Cup" to promote a sausage sizzle do.

Will local car rental operator suddenly steal the cups thunder if they are allowed to use the words that describe an event that is happening in their locality? Will travel agencies be able to promote the Rugby World Cup because if they dare use the actual words describing the event then they most probably will the fall foul of the law?

Again the organizers say they are looking only for malicious breaches, and that they are not going to be overly heavy-handed. They assure us “We'll use common sense”.

Hard to use common sense in this when the whole concept is so ludicrous, that the mere act of describing an actual event in your promotion is illegal. Worse still this act not only applies to this event but may others deemed to need protection from profiteering, god help the community for getting behind a local event. It is said the act is there to stop other companies coming in and pretending to be associated or piggybacking, and that might seem fine but the method and application is all wrong.

So what can New Zealanders do? I would suggest just ignore the whole event, if you are a business why waste your time courting fans of an event that obviously neither the organisers want or by their actions indicate they need. The community guarantees the success of this event so if the organizers don’t want your help why give it. Another option might be to use other alternative descriptive words such as “Global Football Goblet”, people are not nearly as stupid as the politicians or organizers must think they are and will get the link. Finally business could put their support behind inclusive community events that would welcome their involvement rather than greedy international sporting codes that think it fine to corrupt the English language for their own gain. 

What do you think? Is the corruption of generic words as trademarks going too far? Will you be putting your support behind the “Global Football Goblet”.

in Massachusetts the Sun Chronicle puts a price on free speech

I wrote an article a couple of week ago about internet forums and the problems that Masterchef was having with theirs you can read that  article here, well it would appear that they are not in this alone in dealing with this problem of rouge comments appearing in the comments sections of their website . I was alerted to this posting at the Sun Chronicle website from Massachusetts stating that they are reintroducing comments on their articles apparently the comment section  have been off the air for a few months due to inappropriate comments from some anonymous readers, you can read the full article here. So it appears they took the knee jerk reaction and just pulled the comments section, well after a couple of months absence it's is back but now with a twist. Under the new arrangement to be able to comment you now have to register, no big deal accept this time you need  to register with a valid credit card and a incur a one off charge of 99 cents for your right to exercise your right to free speech well at least at this internet site.

To enforce this change, all posters will be required to register their name, address, phone number and a legitimate credit card number. The credit card will be charged a one-time fee of 99 cents to activate the account. The poster's name as it appears on the credit card will automatically be attached to the poster's comments, as will the name of the community in which they live.

I can understand what they are attempting to do, but I don’t care how much it actually is 99 cents or 1 cent I am not handing over my credit card number just to leave a comment. Like I have said previously,

“The problem that these forums face is they will encounter comments that are not reasonably minded; some are racist slurs, hate speech, religious vilification, spam or any other sort of unsavoury, unwanted and most definitely uninvited speech.”

However although requiring registration is appropriate demanding payment for them to authenticate your identity is not. I still think that this approach is wrong and that it only stifles speech and removes a problem that the Sun Chronicle don’t really want to deal with by applying the appropriate resources, that they no doubt did with physical letters to the editor. I also wonder how the issue of credit card theft, and the rights of the people who post now that any aggrieved party can petition the courts to have the Sun Chronicle release the identity of any poster of comments.

Like I have said I always post comments under my name but I can understand why some people may choose not to want too, I applaud the Sun Chronicle actions in reopening the comments section just question the fashion and method that have chosen to use.

What do think leave me a free comment here, love to hear what you have to say.