Comments on: EEC votes ‘No’ on should-a.com

The common concern people have with the use of the word “good” in the actual referendum is that it implied that a smack can be used as part of good parental correction. If one disputes this, then answering the question can be tortuous.

I don’t see that the same problem arises with the word “good” in the question “should infringing on copyright as part of good political parody be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”

Only if one thinks that political parody cannot be good would the use of the word “good” be as bad it is in the child discipline question. It’s use in the above question does not make the question meaningless.

By: kf

kf — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:17:16 +0000

the original

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=92876168772#/group.php?gid=92876168772

By: lprent

lprent — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:31:06 +0000

Great. It has been a considerable source of amusement to me to see how tortured some of the ‘questions’ have been.

Perhaps referendum question makers should have to spend some playtime putting their questions in front of bloggers for a month or so. Probably make the questions more readable

By: Dylan Reeve

Dylan Reeve — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:24:47 +0000

Just to let you know – after making a few changes to the site, I seem to have convinced the EEC that they should leave the site alone.

I suspect a few calls from media organisations helped as well – it was poised to make it into the mainstream.

In some ways I would have liked it to go further, as I think a larger focus on the lack of fair use provisions in NZ copyright law would have been a good thing, but I probably don’t need the hassle.

At no point was I considering removing the site, or substantially changing it.

By: felix

felix — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:37:29 +0000

Did I? Where?

By: Graeme

Graeme — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:19:57 +0000

You dispute that political parody can be good?

By: felix

felix — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:52:37 +0000

Actually Matthew, unless you remove the word “good” the question above is just as meaningless as the current referendum.

Jesus man, sharpen up.

By: Matthew Hooton

Matthew Hooton — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:37:53 +0000

Asking the question you feature above would be a more sensible use of tax dollars than the one being asked later this month. Given that $9 million is being spent on asking that question, perhaps the Prime Minister could arrange for your question to also be asked as part of the same exercise. The marginal cost could not be all that much.

By: felix

felix — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:12:38 +0000

Just to be clear: The site isn’t actually being taken down?

By: Tim Ellis

Tim Ellis — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:14:10 +0000

That’s a shame. There were a lot of amusing should-a expressions going up.

By: Build your own referendumb « g.blog

Build your own referendumb « g.blog — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:25:01 +0000

[...] [EDIT: Original Image © Crown copyright http://bit.ly/electcopy – this edit added due to stupid and draconian copyright law. [...]

By: Graeme

Graeme — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:19:56 +0000

The Electoral Commission is not the same as the Electoral Enrolment Centre.