“Land of the Long Black Cloud”: Copyright Globalization and Viral Counterpublicity in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Viral flows of counterpublicity are an increasingly common occurrence in the global modular network of the modern public spheres. This article applies a public sphere theoretical framework built upon the radical or agonistic tradition and a critical discourse analytical methodological framework to interpret the example of the 2009 New Zealand Internet Blackout, which was mobilized in protest against impending copyright legislation that would have rendered the Aotearoa New Zealand environment one of the harshest in the world. It shows that viral counterpublicity can generate successful counterhegemonic projects and even bring about legislative change, and in doing so, makes the argument that our understanding of what the modern public sphere is should allow for more unruly and contentious forms of democratically legitimate communication.

Notes

¹The contentious sections were actually S92A and S92C, not S92B or C, or any of the other subsections, but the shortened reference S92 was in common use in NZ, and will be used here for brevity.

²However, it should be noted that the wider blackout form was not conceived at the Camp.

³General elections are held every 3 years in NZ.

⁴For example, the nation's nuclear-free status led to the US severing most defense ties and downgrading political and diplomatic interactions with NZ from 1985 until relatively recently.