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Hey Conroy, they’ve got the internet on computers these days. |
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Written by rebecca lanning
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Thursday, 23 July 2009 09:39 |
After reading the government’s report Australia’s Digital Economy: Future Directions it really seems to me that Conroy & his Department of Broadband, Communications & the Digital Economy really don’t have much of a clue about the internet. A lot of people came to this same conclusion months ago – but hey, I’m a slow learner.
What really stood out for me in the report is the fact that while the internet is a communication medium, the likes of which we have never previously experienced, the government continues to apply regulatory frameworks to it that were established for less or non interactive media forms.
First Conroy’s proposed internet filter. Despite enormous evidence demonstrating this will not work, the government continues its trial of this ridiculous money waster. The filter is supposed to protect children from child pornography but when organizations such as Save the Children are urging the government to rethink the filter we have to think “this is nuts!”… right?
And now Conroy is entertaining the idea of a ‘3 strikes’ system to combat unauthorised file sharing. Intellectual property rights in this digital age are a very tricky thing to regulate but by simply allowing copyright owners to wantonly accuse users of violating IP rights, eventually leading to their removal from the internet seems rather hit and miss. In his report ‘Crime, Copyright and the Digital Age’ Stephen Penney notes that detecting file sharers and other non-commercial copyright infringers is technically difficult, expensive, vulnerable to technological countermeasures, and invasive of privacy. And then we are going to top this process off with a lack of judicial oversight? Fantastic!
Instead of being frightened of digitisation and its differences from previous media forms, why cant we learn to appreciate and use these differences? Why not regulate the internet in a way that plays on its strengths rather than simply setting new challenges for Tom Wood and his mates? Let’s start thinking of new ideas instead of rehashing old ones, which may or may not have worked in the past.
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