It's not often that a gigantic corporation stands up for the rights of open information, but sometimes the DMCA makes strange bedfellows. Google has released a strongly-worded statement to the New Zealand government against that country's new law which insists that a user be disconnected if he or she is issued three DMCA takedown notices. Most notably, Google claims that more than half of all DMCA takedown notices are sent by businesses to target competitors, and more than a third are not valid copyright claims. Google goes on to say: "excessive copyright protection can stifle creativity, choke innovation, impoverish culture and block free and fair competition."
It's interesting that Google should choose to get involved in this one. Is this an expression of a true belief held by Google? Is it a PR stunt engineered to garner more respect from the open information advocates that so hammered Google over their practices in China and elsewhere? Or is there some hidden financial incentive Google has for opposing New Zealand's new law? Thoughts?
Via BoingBoing, via /.
UPDATE Open FTW! New Zealand pulled the crappy law Google was complaining about here: "3 strikes" strikes out in NZ as government yanks law
