[LINK] Google soon to be banned in Australia under draconian censorship laws

[rene]

On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:02:03 +0100, Kim Holburn wrote:

> http://www.inquisitr.com/20245/google-soon-to-be-banned-in-australia-
> under-draconian-censorship-laws/
>> Google soon to be banned in Australia under draconian censorship
>> laws

Scary story, but not much if any fact in it.

For a start, the Internet censorship legislation excludes: 

      (l)  an exempt Internet directory service; or 
      (m)  an exempt Internet search engine service; or

which would, under the legislated definitions of those exempt things, most 
certainly exclude Google.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/bsa1992214/sch7.html

>> If I was linking to XYZ blog, and XYZ blog was linking to ABC blog
>> who had linked to the list, all the pages in the chain are illegal,
>> because each one links to prohibited content. Any site linking to
>> me then becomes illegal, and so on.

On the basis of a detailed analysis of Sch 7 of the BSA, imo that's an 
exaggeration. 

The BSA does not make pages 'illegal' merely because they contain a link to 
a URL on ACMA's blacklist or link to any other page that does. ACMA can 
order a content host, if in Australia, to delete a link on a page to a URL 
on its (secret) blacklist, not order take down/deletion of the whole page 
containing such a link. In addition, no ISP/content host is in breach of 
the BSA merely because their servers host a page that contains a link to 
so-called 'prohibited content' identified by the ACMA. They are required to 
delete a link if and only if they receive a 'link deletion notice' from the 
ACMA (and have until 6pm the next business day to comply with the notice).

Also, link deletion notices do not apply to links contained in pages that 
are hosted outside Australia.

There is a vast amount about existing AU Net censorship laws worthy of 
criticism, including 'link deletion notices' that came into existence from 
20 January 2008. However, grossly exaggerating ACMA's powers in relation to 
link deletion notices is not helpful - and it's a massive distraction from 
the fact that ACMA is empowered to order takedown of web pages deemed MA15+ 
to RC inclusive if hosted in Australia or add such pages to its blacklist 
if hosted o/s.

Irene