June 5, 2014 7:00am by David Farrar

Throng on the Internet Party

The Internet Party tweeted:

Thousands of NZers have been blocked from #Netflix http://bit.ly/1rF1H6a We need meaningful #Copyright reform and better infrastructure.

Throng points out:

Let’s be blunt. Not having Netflix in New Zealand has nothing to do with infrastructure.

This tweet was 2 days after the Sunday Star Times published a story about how an estimated 30,000 Netflix subscribers had been unable to access the streaming content service. The problem had actually been resolved 3 days earlier to that as we reported.

The Internet Party’s statement seems to overlook entirely the number of subscribers to Netflix. 30,000 is not an insignificant number for a service that isn’t technically available in New Zealand. With that number of subscribers being prepared to hand over cash every month it would be safe to assume that the current infrastructure is entirely capable enough to deliver the service its subscribers are paying for.

Throng is correct that the Netflix problem had nothing to do with infrastructure. Also NZ copyright law has no impact on Netflix not being available to NZers. There is nothing the NZ Parliament could do to change the non availability. The issue is the decisions by content producers to not grant Netflix a licence for their products in NZ. I want that to change, but again it is not something NZ can do unilaterally.

Throng also notes Laila Harre tweeted:

Reaching out to Postie Plus workers. I know @FIRST_Union will be there in force. @GayMaxine @SamHuggard

As I’ve said before, Laila is an effective and passionate advocate for unions and workers. But not so for Internet issues. What helped kill Postie Plus? The Internet.

Whale points out:

Now we all know that the Internet Party is nothing but a scam, and the whole process of using MMP to score a hit on Key on behalf of Mr “I’ll destroy, anybody” Dotcom, but to have it so clearly illustrated mere days into her job is rather sooner than I expected.

She has absolutely no idea what she’s doing. How this is possibly going to make it to the election without some sort of a complete structural and public failure is beyond me.

She now heads a party that has, as one of its objectives, the aim to optimise the use of the Internet. That means this will destroy traditional employment as we know it. You only have to look at postal workers as an example of the steady transformation that the Internet has caused within their industry.

A mail order company that doesn’t embrace the Internet is a dead duck.

The Internet is the greatest creator and destroyer of jobs we have known. An Internet Party should be embracing the change.