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Nazis, Porn and Politics: Asserting Control Over Internet Content

Carolyn Penfold* Lecturer, Faculty of Law, and Research Associate, Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia c.penfold@unsw.edu.au

Abstract

Australia's attempts to control content on the internet were criticized as making Australia the 'village idiot of the internet world,' lacking understanding of a global technology not susceptible to control by national governments. A recent French Court decision, ordering Yahoo Inc (US) to block French internet users' access to certain content on its site, is another attempt to use one country's laws to control local access to internet content. This paper examines the Australian legislation and the French court decision and concludes that these two attempts to control access to internet content presently appear equally ineffective. However, by signaling to other nations their willingness to act to regulate internet content, these actions may in fact increase the impetus for moves toward more effective international agreement in this area.

Keywords: Internet Censorship, Internet Content Control, French Decision v Yahoo! Inc, Australian Internet Regulation.

This is a Refereed article published on 2 July 2001.

Citation: Penfold C, 'Nazis, Porn and Politics: Asserting Control Over Internet Content', Refereed article, 2001 (2) The Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT). <http://elj.warwick.ac.uk/jilt/01-2/penfold.html>

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