[LINK] porn via email illegal?

[Danny Yee]

Rick Welykochy wrote:
> I hope other Linkers will dig up definitive references for this.
> AFAIK, email is not covered by the BSA. The only Internet services
> that are covered and subject to the legislation are:
> 
> (*) web (HTTP)
> (*) news (NNTP)
> 
> All other services and forms of TCP/IP communications are not
> covered ro affected. (strange, that!)
 
Not true.  The BSA is not application-specific.  And Alston responding
to questions in Parliament made it clear that the Bill _does_ cover
some email, just not "ordinary" personal email.

The BSA however only applies to ISPs and Internet Content Hosts, not
to ordinary users.  So if I were to post something R-rated to link
and someone complained to the ABA about it, the takedown notice for
the archived version of the post would be directed to Tony or network
management at ANU, not to me.

(It is possible, if what Alston said about public lists being covered
is correct, that a takedown notice could be issued for link qua list,
requiring that the entire list be shut down.)

Broadcast content *is* specifically exempt from the Act.  This is
one of the weirder parts of the legislation -- as far as I can tell,
if you broadcast X-rated video over to the public over the Net,
that's not subject to the BSA!

Danny.