A few comments in response to the various replies I've received: Firstly, the draft "Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Bill 1999" is available as http://scaletext.law.gov.au/html/bills/0/1999/0/0642393079.htm Some amendments were made, but as far as I am aware, they don't materially affect the Bill. I still don't know of a URL for the final version. Secondly, private e-mail is apparently exempt (unless it is archived), whereas public mailing lists are covered. The exact definitions are not particularly clear. Definitely, if BUGTRAQ was banned, such a ban would extend to any on-line archive of it (but a hard-copy printout would be classified under different rules and probably be perfectly legal). The Bill makes ISPs responsible for prevent access to banned material. The Bill does not make it clear how this should be done - even the Government admits that implementing it isn't practical. ISP's _do_ face a fine of $A27,000 (USD18,000) per day for failing to comply with a `take-down' order. The possibility of tunnelling encrypted content isn't touched upon (I suspect that the relevant politicans didn't realise it was possible). It's fairly clear to most people within the industry that the Bill is unworkable. At this point, I think I have strayed far enough from the stated purpose of this list and request that further correspondence be re-directed to either myself or stop-censorshipat_private Peter -- Peter Jeremy (VK2PJ) peter.jeremyat_private Alcatel Australia Limited 41 Mandible St Phone: +61 2 9690 5019 ALEXANDRIA NSW 2015 Fax: +61 2 9690 5982
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