Creative Commons has announced today that it is ‘launching the second and final round of a survey intended to collect information on how people understand the term “noncommercial use”.’
If you are someone who uses, or would like to use “cc noncommercial” works or for that matter if you are someone who would like to but doesn’t use use cc “non commercial” works because of the meaning(s) attributed to the term, then please take the survey.
Claims that the NPA statement on the decision to withdraw the prosecution against Mr Jacob Zuma shows why it is important for democracy for the judgements of courts to be freely available to all on the Internet.
An article on Politicsweb questions whether the statement by the director of the National Prosecuting Authority plagiarised a judgement given in Hong Kong.
James Myburgh, author of the article sets out similarities in the language of the concluding paragraphs of both judgement and statement, as well as citation of Commonwealth decisions.
NPA spokesperson Tali Tali responded to media enquiries about the similarities:
“”We are recognising that what we said was based on that judgement and we are in no way attempting to pass that ruling off as our own. We regret the oversight, but it in no way detracts from the decision that Advocate Mpshe reached.”
The judgement, by judge Seagroatt in 1999 in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the matter of HKSAR v Lee Ming Tee is available on a website hosted by the Hong Kong government. The same site usefully links the judgement in question to an appeal judgement which overturned the earlier judgement. The appeal judgement overturned the earlier judgement on the question of whether there was undue delay in the prosecution of the case, which is not the reason advanced by the NPA in the Zuma case. However the appeal judgement does deal with the question of whether a permanent stay of prosecution is the only or inevitable remedy in a situation in which a court finds that there has been undue delay, or other action impinging on the rights of the accused.
This incident shows why we need all judgements to be publicly available on the Internet. The availability of the first judgement enabled Politicsweb to discover the (admitted) similarity with the NPA statement. The availability of the judgement also enables people to read both documents and form their own opinions whether the reliance on the judgement taints the statement from the director of the NPA. The availability of the appeal enables citizens not only to see that the earlier judgement was overturned but on what basis.
The availability of the judgements empowers people to obtain information, form decisions and take part in discussion, all vital to any democracy.
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