Parallel Importing and Deaf
Parallel Importing and Deaf
19th July 2002
New Zealand Government set to sell Deaf and
Hearing-impaired down the river after the Elections The
Government is set to sell Deaf and Hearing-impaired New
Zealanders down the river after the Elections with its
proposed Parallel Importing Legislation. While the
Government knowingly admits that some groups such as Deaf
and Hearing-impaired will be disadvantaged, they have
offered no remedy to the captioning issue states Deaf
lobbyist Mr Kim Robinson. In late 2001, Hollywood won a
High Court case banning the release of parallel imported
DVD’s & videos for 9 months after the initial International
Cinema release. DVD’s have been a source of captioned
entertainment for Deaf and Hearing-impaired as none of the
movies available on DVD are captioned in Cinemas. Most of
the DVD’s that are imported into New Zealand allows the
viewer an option of watching the DVD in a several captioned
languages. New Zealand has been on the US Special 301
‘watch list’ – a list that is maintained by the United
States Trade Representative (USTR) for a several years since
1998. This list is a mechanism that signals to foreign
Governments the seriousness with which US views intellectual
property problems. Failure to address the seriousness of the
parallel importing issue which helps to combat piracy could
lead to sanctions of imported goods such as software,
videos, DVD's into New Zealand. The proposed parallel
importing legislation should not be used to deny certain
groups the access to a much need tool that enables Deaf and
Hearing-impaired to captioned dialogue that can not be
presently obtained in other ways. New Zealand has a very
poor record of offering captioned content to users whom
depend on it. Currently only around 100 hours a week are
captioned out of the 1000+ public free to air TV. SKY does
not offer a captioning service either.
By not offering
access to captions, the Government is creating a new
criminal franchise in New Zealand among a minority group
that depends on the very thing to enable them to participate
in an everyday leisure that is deemed ‘normal’ among the
majority of society. Deaf and Hearing- impaired people
shouldn’t be forced to resort to crime to be able to enjoy a
leisure activity and pay a ‘high price’ for doing so if
caught. This itself is a potential violation of basic Human
Rights for a minority group that needs access to the
captioned content of the verbal English dialogue. Nor do
Deaf and Hearing-impaired want to become victims of a
burglary if they do own a legal copy of the DVD which they
had imported from overseas for their own private use. As
Deaf and Hearing-impaired people are on the lower-economic
scale, not many would be able to afford the high cost of
regularly importing DVDs from Overseas for their private
use. Deaf and Hearing- impaired would have to wait for 9
months before the DVD that has captions are allow to be
released from Video Rental Stores. It would be ironic for
the majority of 200,000 Deaf and Hearing-impaired adults
whom voted in the previous Elections for a Labour-Alliance
Government which supports the establishment of a Relay
Service and the Official recognition of NZ Sign Language, to
vote again for a Government that would be willing to sell
them down the river on the parallel importing legislation
without any remedy. At present the proposed parallel
importing legislation and captioning in Cinemas are subject
to a current Human Rights Commission investigation, whom Mr
Robinson whom made a complaint over this issue.
Contact: Mr Kim Robinson Fax: 09 832 6112 SMS: 021
1348126 Email: rockland@ihug.co.nz References:
Captioned Cinemas http://www.yourlocalcinema.com/
(UK) http://www.auscap.com.au/cinemastart.htm
(Australia) Parallel Importing
http://www.govt.nz/news/detail.php3?id=1221
http://www.executive.govt.nz/speech.cfm?speechralph=36908&SR=0
http://www.tradenz.govt.nz/CWS/page_Article/0,1300,1310%252D2203,00.html
Relay Service
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0205/S00148.htm
Disability Policies of Political Parties in NZ
http://www.policy.net.nz/si-disabilities.shtml