Purple Patch
Focused on performance

Category Archive: Legal

Open Access, Open Licensing, Open Government: A word of thanks to colleagues at Queensland University of Technology

Written on 06 May 2010 by Richard Best

In August 2009, SSC released the draft New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing Framework (NZGOAL) for road-testing by agencies and public comment. Since that time, officials at SSC and DIA have been digesting the feedback, meeting with agencies, speaking with interested experts both here and abroad, and making a large number of changes to NZGOAL.

Last updated: 
7 May 2010
Posted in: Uncategorized, Legal, Guest post
Tagged: NZGOAL, SSC

Amendment to the Public Finance Act Regulations - Web 2.0

Written on 08 Mar 2010 by Matt Lane

This is a guest post by Genevieve Hancock. Genevieve Hancock is a Solicitor at the Government Technology Services (GTS) within the Department of Internal Affairs.

Want to use social media tools to communicate with New Zealanders? Or manipulate data feeds with Yahoo!Pipes? Want to use WordPress to create some wonderful new application for your Government employer?

Well now it is easier.

Last updated: 
16 March 2010
Posted in: Participation, Govt 2.0, Legal, Guest post
Tagged: web 2.0, regulations, legislation, public finance act, indemnities, indemnifying, end user license agreements

Australians propose open access to Public Sector Information and use of the Creative Commons BY licence to facilitate re-use

Written on 11 Dec 2009 by Keitha Booth

The Australian 2.0 Taskforce's draft report, 'Engage: getting on with Government 2.0', makes bold recommendations aimed at making "government not just more open and democratic, not just more consultative, but also a truer collaboration between the apparatus of the state and its citizens".

It suggests that the USA, UK and NZ are leading the 'transition towards Government 2.0' and lists what these countries have done to merit that judgement - see the New Zealand list on pages 12-14.

I was pleased to see the draft

Last updated: 
12 December 2009
Posted in: Strategy, Govt 2.0, Legal
Tagged: Creative Commons, NZGOAL

"Just shut 'em down, you hear me!"

Written on 03 Feb 2009 by Richard Best

In this day and age, where every person and his or her intelligent dog is able to post content to the internet, whether it be textual, audio or audio-visual, the risk of third parties having a crack at you, your agency or business through the publication of infringing content has, I suspect, never been greater. By infringing content, I basically mean any content that is invasive of another's rights or interests. Examples include defamatory comment, certain kinds of abusive comment, online harassing comment, breach of copyright ... the list goes on. No one is immune to this.

Last updated: 
4 February 2009
Posted in: Legal

Amendment to Terms of Use

Written on 03 Feb 2009 by Richard Best

Those commenting on this blog may wish to note that we have amended clause 9 of the Terms of Use, to read as follows:

9.  Pre-publication moderation Contributions to the Site may be moderated by one or more SSC moderators before being published. Those moderators may decline to publish contributions or may modify contributions if they are considered to be either contrary to clause 6 above or irrelevant to the subject-matter of the Site.

Last updated: 
4 February 2009
Posted in: Legal

Social media and legal code

Written on 09 May 2008 by Richard Best

The article 'Social media and legal code' (PDF. 371KB), published recently in NZ Lawyer, provides a checklist of governance, legal, and quasi-legal issues for those involved in the planning, design, operation, and maintenance of social media sites. Hope it's of some use.

Last updated: 
10 May 2008
Posted in: Legal
Tagged: social media, resources

Legal liability for republishing others’ RSS feed content which breaches third party rights

Written on 09 May 2008 by Richard Best

As I have noted elsewhere, UK-based Out-law has recently reported, in one of its excellent legal podcasts, on recent cases in France in which the courts have held that website operators who republished RSS feed content onto their sites were legally responsible themselves as publishers of what transpired to be posts that were invasive of certain third parties’ privacy rights.

Last updated: 
10 May 2008
Posted in: Legal
Tagged: rss, resyndication

Some great thinking on collaborative governance

Written on 20 Mar 2008 by Richard Best

The internet is a deep and rich repository of information. That's the thought that surfaced when I came across the work of Professor Beth Simone Noveck today. 

Among other things, Professor Noveck is a Professor of Law at New York Law School, with particular expertise in the impact of technology on legal and political institutions. She has written widely on this and related topics, including a recent article entitled Wiki-Government.

Last updated: 
21 March 2008
Posted in: Participation, Govt 2.0, Legal
Tagged: e-democracy, collaborative governance

An introduction to social media sites and tools

Written on 18 Mar 2008 by Richard Best

In some of my posts, in which I'll be referring to legal issues relevant to governmental and other organisational social media sites, I'll use the phrase "social media sites and tools" quite often. As such, I thought it best to explain, up front, what I mean. I've already done this in another context so it's no drama to reproduce my thoughts here.

Last updated: 
9 January 2009
Posted in: Participation, Govt 2.0, Legal
Tagged: rss, social media, tools, blogs, wikis, parsing, multimedia, youtube, slideshare

Staff Contribution Guidelines for In Development, Creative Commons style

Written on 13 Mar 2008 by Richard Best

One of the issues raised during the development of this blog was whether to have Staff Contribution Guidelines. Without the need for any protracted discussion, we decided that having such Guidelines in place prior to launch was desirable.

Last updated: 
14 March 2008
Posted in: Participation, Legal
Tagged: Creative Commons, guidelines, blogging, copyright

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