FITUG e.V.

Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

FC: Followup: Australians do not have to buy filters

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 18:07:21 -0500 To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: FC: Followup: Australians do not have to buy filters Send reply to: declan@well.com

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From: "Dave McClure" <dmcclure@usiia.org>
To: <declan@well.com>
Subject: Response from Australia
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 13:55:05 -0500

Declan:

As you may know, we have a strong affiliation with the Internet Industry Association in Australia. I sent the item on filtering to my good friend Peter Coroneos, who represents the Internet industry in Canberra as has been responsible for much of their saner legislation there.

Here's Peter's response to the EFF hysteria about users being force to pay for filtering software:

"This is deliberate misinformation - Australians will not be forced to do anything of the kind. ISPs will be required to provide these tools to end users. They can charge if they wish, but indications are many will be provided free. Users will not have to implement the filters - that remains optional. The focus is on empowering end users. It would be a different matter entirely if users were forced to use this stuff as a condition of access. The registration of our code guarantees that there will be NO MANDATORY BLOCKING of content in Australia - as would have been the case had we not got involved. The IIA has published a guide to end users on our site that dispels some of this garbage. The comment about 'secret lists' applies with any commercially available filter products in the market right now. I would appreciate it if you can circulate this information to the widest possible audience. Thanks Peter"

His reference to their "code" is the industry code of practice, which was accepted by the Government there as an industry alternative to content blocking. Hope this helps settle things a bit. In "registering" the industry code, the government codifies it under a process they term "co-regulation." Interesting way to do it - the government cites a problem, industry finds a solution, and the government then makes the industry solution law. I often wish it were that easy here.

Regards, Dave McClure US Internet Industry Association (formerly AOP)

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