Despite months of lobbying, a Google and iiNet-backed industry group, the Safer Internet Group (SIG), has been unsuccessful in meeting with the communications minister, Stephen Conroy, to discuss their alternative to the Government’s proposed mandatory ISP-filter.
iiNet has taken a swing at the Federal Government’s mandatory ISP-level filter, calling it an “ideological approach aimed at a political objective”.
If the level of industry feedback on the Federal Government’s measures to increase accountability and transparency for Refused Classification (RC) material is anything to go by, then it’s safe to say ISPs have effectively chosen to filter out the exercise as a waste of time.
New Zealand’s opt-in Internet content filter has gone live today with a least two confirmed participating ISPs. The government-run and operated scheme was quietly turned on early last month as a soft launch.
The U.S., Europe and other countries are secretly drawing up rules designed to crack down on copyright abuse on the Internet, in part by making ISPs liable for illegal content, according to a copy of part of the confidential draft agreement that was seen by the IDG News Service.