Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion

[Jane Hornibrook <janehornibrook AT gmail.com>]

CC Friend Jonathon Penney will be giving a public lecture soon here in Wellington that will be of interest. See below....

- Jane

InternetNZ, Victoria University Faculty of Law and the New Zealand Centre of
International Economic Law invite you to a public lecture:

Open Connectivity, Open Data: Two Dimensions of the
Right to Seek, Receive, and Impart Information

Jonathon Penney
InternetNZ Senior Research Fellow in Cyber Law 2009
Based at the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington

Recently, ideas about “rights” to Internet access or connectivity have received
growing recognition from governments, legal institutions, and other political actors
in several countries, including New Zealand. Despite this emerging political and legal
recognition, there are few, if any, systematic studies exploring such ideas. Aiming to
help fill this void, this lecture examines these emerging ideas, including the different
notions of Internet "rights" and whether there is any legal basis for such rights in
New Zealand. Though not without some obstacles, it will be argued that section 14 of
the New Zealand Bill of Rights offers the best potential to found such claims.

Drawing on section 14's unique text, broader historical, social and legal context, as
well as its past interpretations, Mr. Penney will argue that the right to "seek, receive,
and impart information and opinions" does, in fact, offer a legal basis for a certain
kind of right to Internet connectivity (open connectivity), as well as a legal basis to
claim wider access— via the Internet or other mediums— to government information
(open data). Some concrete implications, both legal and political, of these findings
will also be discussed.

5:30pm, Thursday 1st July 2010
Lecture Theatre 1, Old Government Buildings,
55 Lambton Quay, Wellington
NZCIEL Public Lectures are free of charge



-- 
Jane Hornibrook
Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand
Cel +64 2761 98139
Ph +64 4 4705 780
www.creativecommons.org.nz
A project of the Council for the Humanities
www.humanities.org.nz