From: Michael Baker <mbaker@pobox.com>
To: online@aba.gov.au
Cc: efa-board@efa.org.au,
tomw@acslink.net.au,
chairman@efa.org.au,
Tony.Barry@library.anu.edu.au,
Roger.Clarke@anu.edu.au
Subject: Submission to On-Line Services Investigation by Michael Baker
- From: Dr Michael Baker
- To: Ms Karren Koomen
- Manager
On-Line Services Investigation
Australian Broadcasting Authority
Dear Ms Koomen,
This is my personal submission to the On-Line Services Investigation.
I am a Software Engineer employed by GEC Marconi Systems and am a
Member of the Australian Computer Society. I was
instrumental in the establishment of Electronic Frontiers Australia
two years ago and was until last year its first Chairman and also
served on the ACS/EFA Joint Task Force.
[ This submission is available on the World Wide Web at
URL:http://pobox.com/~mbaker/aba.html ]
Further to my email of 15-Feb-96 I called your 1-800 number and received
permission to make this submission before 9am on Monady 19 February.
As I stated in my previous email all of the substantive points in
that email are included in this submission.
Most of the points that I wish to make in regard to your investigation
have already been made by others. In particular by Simon Vandore,
Irene
Graham, and Electronic Frontiers
Australia Inc. I have five points to make:
- As suggested on "Radio National this afternoon,
Australia has a real opportunity to become a world leader on the
Internet. With the passage of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) the
US has shot itself in the foot. There are many sites in the US
which are now looking for a safer place to operate from. These
sites are not purveyors of pornography but sites which contain
literature, scripture, photos of art works, museum displays, and others,
all of which may fall foul of the indecency test of the CDA.
For examples of sites that could fail the indecency test see
URL:http://www.eff.org/BlueRibbon/sites.html
To be able to take such a lead we, as a nation, need to understand
this new medium, not be frightened by it, and realise the unprecedented
power that it gives individuals to control what they and those in
their care see and hear. Having done this we need to create a legal
system which protects all who provide services from liability for
that over which they have no control. If this is done soon we as
a nation will be able to take a leadership role in the continuing
development of the Internet, the fastest growing communications medium
on earth.
- I request that before making any
proposals that you conduct some type of cost benefit study. Not
in an economic sense but in terms of answering questions like:
- Is additional regulation required or are existing laws sufficient to cover the areas of concern?
- How effective will the proposed solution be? i.e. how much of the
material likely to harm or disturb children will it stop children
accessing?
- What are the adverse consequences of the proposed solution?
In particular will the proposed solution have adverse effects on
Australian interests such as the development and promotion of
Australian services and "content"?
And then asking if the benefits or effecitiveness outweigh the costs
or adverse effects.
- I also request that as well as considering regulation that
you consider the costs and benefits of an
educational campaign to explain the new technology, how an individual
can use it to control what they see and hear, and how parents and
teachers can
control what their children and pupils see and hear. I suspect
that an educaitional campaign will be much more cost effective.
- The operation of the Internet is built on the development of consensus.
I assume that you aim if possible to develop consensual solutions to the
matters you are investigating. To that end
I request that you enter into a dialogue via the internet with
people who have a wide experience of how this technology works.
The advantage of holding such a dialogue is that you can have a much
higher level of confidence that any solutions which emerge will be
both technically feasible and have minimal adverse consequences.
To set up such a dialogue I suggest that you contact any of:
- Tom Worthington
- President of the Australian Computer Society
tomw@acslink.net.au
- Kim Heitman
- Chairman of Electronic Frontiers Australia
chairman@efa.org.au
- Tony Barry
- Maintainer of the link mailing list
Tony.Barry@library.anu.edu.au
- I wish the following submissions by my self and others to be considered by your
investigation:
Yours sincerely,
Dr Michael Baker.
PS As an example of how easy it is to forge email
please note that althogh my email address is mbaker@pobox.com
I actually use an Australian access provider (dove.mtx.net.au).
I suspect that as you read this you will not be aware that
this email actually came from mbaker@dove.mtx.net.au and not from
mbaker@pobox.com. This level of address "forgery" is trivial.
Instead of mbaker@pobox.com I could equally as well have set it
up so that it appeared that this message came from president@whitehouse.gov, online@aba.gov.au
or any other address that I chose.
More sophisticated fogeries are not much more difficult.
If this throws some doubt on the authenticity of this submission
please call me at work (08) 262 3511 or at home (08) 388 8439. These
numbers can be confirmed in the white pages (GEC Marconi Systems Pty Ltd, Technology Park, The Levels; and Baker Michael, 1 Willis Road,
Flaxley).
mbaker@pobox.com
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This page last updated: 16 February 2002 at 11:40pm