GILC ACTION ALERT

SIGN PETITION AGAINST AUSTRALIAN CONTENT REGULATION

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS WILL MAKE ISPs RESPONSIBLE FOR POLICING ONLINE CONTENT

 

CONTENTS:

Background

The Petition

How to Sign the Petition

GILC Members Issuing this Alert

BACKGROUND

In the same week that President Clinton announced that the US Government would not be introducing any new government controls over Internet content the Australian government announced the opposite intention. Members of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign have warned that the Australian proposals would threaten free speech and place an impossible burden on Australian Internet service providers.

Details of the Australian proposal are available online at:

http://www.dca.gov.au/policy/fwork_4_online_svces/framework.htm

Electronic Frontiers Australia, a founder member of GILC, has launched a campaign against these proposals and is urging all who are concerned about online freedoms to make a submission to the Australian Government. Details about EFA's campaign are available on the Web at:

http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/contreg.html

The undersigned members of GILC are supporting the campaign by EFA and call on all concerned for online freedoms to sign the following petition.

THE PETITION

 

This petition will be presented to the Australian Senate later this year. The Senate President has already approved the presentation of "electronic petitions".

 

"To the Honourable the President and Members of the Senate in the Parliament assembled:

The undersigned Petitioners respectfully request that the Senate recognises:

  • That, for many Australians, the Internet plays a vital role as a means of communication, a vehicle for the expression of ideas and opinions, and a source of information.

  • That the Internet is a complex, global environment where traditional concepts of regulation are not easily applied or enforced.

  • That there is a need to make a clear distinction between the responsibility of those who produce and publish content and that of intermediaries such as carriers and Internet Service Providers.

  • That the full potential for development of the Internet in Australia will depend on governments recognising rights to freedom of speech taken for granted by other societies.

  • That the emerging information industries should not be burdened with unnecessary and poorly conceived regulation.

    • The petitioners therefore call upon the Senate to reject any attempt by the Government to impose additional censorship on the Internet."

    HOW TO SIGN THE PETITION

     

    The petition is available at:

    http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/petition.html

     

    Full details on how to sign the petition are available on the petition web page.

    GILC MEMBERS ISSUING THIS ALERT

     

    ALCEI - Electronic Frontiers Italy <http://www.altair.it/alcei>

    American Civil Liberties Union <http://www.aclu.org>

    Association des Utilisateurs d'Internet <http://www.aui.fr>

    CommUnity - The Computer Communicators Association

    <http://www.community.org.uk/>

    Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK)

    <http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/yaman.htm>

    Derechos Human Rights <http://www.derechos.org>

    Digital Citizens Foundation Netherlands (DB-NL) <http://www.db.nl>

    EFF-Austin <http://www.eff-austin.org>

    Electronic Frontiers Australia <http://www.efa.org.au>

    Electronic Frontier Canada <http://www.efc.ca/>

    Fronteras Electronicas Espanã <http://www.arnal.es/free/>

    Electronic Frontier Foundation <http://www.eff.org>

    Electronic Privacy Information Center <http://www.epic.org>

    Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung (FIFF) <http://hyperg.uni-paderborn.de/~FIFF>

    Förderkreis Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft - FITUG <http://www.fitug.de/>

    NetAction <http://www.netaction.org>

    Privacy International <http://www.privacy.org/pi/>

    Quintessenz (Austria) <http://www.quintessenz.at>

    Xs4all <http://www.xs4all.nl>