Kevin Rudd’s war on the Internet
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Australian Internet providers must be wondering what they did to upset the new government. Not only does the Rudd government want ISPs to filter the Internet, they are now considering forcing them to police copyright infringement.
This idea that ISPs should monitor their customer’s usage is bizarre, not only will increase ISPs overheads but it will also mean thousands of users will be accused incorrectly of having copyrighted material on their computers.
The frustrating thing with this flawed proposal is that it protects the incompetent and greedy record labels while nobbling the telecommunications infrastructure most industries increasingly rely upon.
Rampant corporate welfare, favouring sectional interests and ignorance of the growing role of the Internet and communications were some of the reasons the previous government was thrown out.
If the Rudd government repeats these mistakes, then we can only conclude the problem is endemic in the Canberra public service and beyond the scope of either political party.
Hopefully both the Australian and British governments will throw these proposals in the bin, but it’s a worry that the new Labor administration seems to be following in the steps of its Liberal predecessor.
One of the great features of the IT industry is how incoming ministers and Managing Directors stand up and announce how they can save some improbable amount of money on their IT spending.