OSIA board member Damian Hickey
Experts say legitimate uses of peer-to-peer protocols mean a blanket ban is not feasible despite the fact it is used to circulate copyright-protected and illegal media.
Wise said commercial organisations will overtake illegal file sharers as the heaviest users of peer-to-peer networks within five years for the dissemination of media-rich content.
“It is a logical way to distribute media en masse; illegal sharers have proven this,” he said.
Open Source Industry Australia board member Damian Hickey said the protocols are being recognised by commercial and open source communities as the fastest way to distribute and store large files such as software and video.
“We are considering making a GPL license our video solution and converting it to peer-to-peer so it is held on computers run as servers... it would be an absolute killer for us if video was filtered while we are running it.”:
“Filtering is an impediment to business — we often have designers working for us who will deliver their work to us via BitTorrent.
“It would be a total pain in the arse if peer-to-peer was filtered [because] of how it would affect distributed version control.
“I don't think they want to filter distributed version control but you can put video up on it and it becomes just another way of getting around it.”
Optus and iiNet confirmed participation in the live content filtering trial, scheduled for completion sometime this month, but said the government has yet to advise whether peer-to-peer filtering will be included.
“We are very committed to ensuring illegal content is eliminated as much as possible from the Internet and we want to work with government to make sure it is done in the best possible way,” Optus director of government and corporate affairs Maha Krishnapillai said.