Industry Protests Over Internet Content Bill

The Australian Internet industry took to the
streets Friday to protest against the federal government’s Broadcasting Services
Amendment (Online Services) legislation, which was introduced earlier this
week.

Some 400 people rallied in Perth, Western Australia, to protest against the
legislation, according to Michael Malone, technical director of Western
Australian ISP iiNet and chairman of the Western Australian Internet
Association. Groups of Internet industry members also hit the streets in
other state capitals.

The content regulation legislation, which requires ISPs to filter offensive
material before it reaches users’ browsers, relies on a code of conduct for
its administration. Such an approach has continually been described as
unrealistic by the Internet Industry Association (IIA).

“While other countries are developing regimes to promote the healthy growth
of their online sector, the government has put a roadblock in the way of
Australian industry,” said IIA executive director Peter Coroneos.

Industry reaction to the legislation has included companies planning to
move their business out of Australia. Local start-up Free4all Classifieds
Friday announced plans to move its Web publishing activity overseas.

Free4all is Australia’s first free Internet classifieds site for private
and trade customers to advertise in real estate, employment, automotive,
and other areas.

Founder and managing director Michael Soker said that although the company
filtered content “for offensive words and inappropriate content…the
legislation will effectively make it imprudent for us to risk publishing in
Australia.”

“Whereas it is not viable to program a TV monitor or a radio receiver to
restrict access to broadcast content, it is possible to control the level
of access to Internet content on individual computers,” added Soker.

“We
clearly have the talent, the technology and the knowhow in Australia to put
our minds to improving what we know is possible. The legislation is as
naive as it is unworkable.”

Coroneos said the IIA would be willing to cooperate with the government
to develop a code of conduct which promoted the health of the industry and
the confidence of consumers. He added though that the organisation “will
not be incorporating unworkable provisions such as mandatory filtering of
overseas content.”

“As many experts on both the industry and government side have stated, this
is impracticable. As such we have no intention of putting in our Code
provisions which cannot be implemented.”

Coroneos added that if a case was brought against an ISP on the issue of
what was “technically or economically feasible,” the IIA would supply the
ISP with the resources to fight the case.