It seems the fight against evil never ends... This is a clipping from the Sunday Mail, the local sunday newspaper (althogh tabloid would be a better word for it). As you can observe, it is one of those papers that have a paragraph:sentence ratio of 1:1. I hope it is of interest to you all. All spelling mistakes are mine. All grammatical awkwardness are his. :-) .... ONLINE MOVES 'OUT OF LINE'. [Date: 11/09/94 - PKM.] (COMPUTERS with Peter Young) [Title of a regular column - PKM.] Proposed changes to the Queensland Criminal Code to crack down on computer networks carrying information used for criminal acts are sparking an outcry. The proposals have been denounced as unworkable by a number of online information providers who claim their businesses will become untenable if the changes are brought in. As part of a sweeping overhaul of the State's criminal code, Attourney-General Wells plans to create two new offences falling into the category of unlawful use of a computer. They would make persons liable for up to 10 years for providing information via computer networks which contributes to a crime. One charge would relate to aiding the commission of a crime and the other would deal with being an accessory before the fact. Instructions on how to make bombs [like gunpowder? -PKM] or set up a child pornography ring are the type of material the proposed legislation wants to target. The laws would apply equally to material downloaded from a local electronic bulleting board system or that acquired by using a commercial gateway to the international Internet system. The legislation is intended to facilitate prosecution of people who knowingly make such information available on their systems, a spokesman for the Attorney-General said. But Australian Internet service providers have condemned the proposals as impractical and unable to be policed and have called for "common carrier" protection similar to that enjoyed by Telecom. Ian Peter, founder of Queensland-headquartered Internet provider Pegasus Networks, branded the proposed laws "unworkable", saying that they were out of touch with overseas thinking on the problem of balancing free speech against the need to control access to unsuitable information. Rhys Weatherley, president to the non-profit Internet access group BrisNet [Brisbane Net, for the geopolitically deprived - PKM], said the proposed laws would give police "licence to arrest" power over any computer network operator merely because offending material was available on their networks. He said the legislation would make scapegoats out of honest network operators while failing to catch real offenders. BrisNet would be forced to shut down rather than run the risk of prosecution if the laws were adopted in their reputed form. Hugh Irvine, a Melbourne businessman, whose company Connect.com.au is a leading commercial gateway to the Internet, said he was happy to co-operate with authorities to prevent hackers or child molesters from using his service to pursue their practices. However, he said that the planned Queensland legislation was equivalent to charging Australia Post executives because criminals used the mail to help plan a bank robbery. "It is heading down the path of the wrong sort of State-run surveillance and Connect.com.au would be unable to continue functioning as a business if laws in the proposed form become a reality, he said. Also wading into the fray is Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), a public interest group set up to monitor threats to civil liberties in cyberspace. EFA skokesman Garth Kidd labelled the Queensland proposals "a worrying development that would stifle the implementation of online services in Australia". .... Comments: The article (and also the proposed legislation) were brought to my attention by my father late last night. As a com- puter professional with ~30 years experience, he was as disgusted as I am with the proposals. He also understood quite clearly how it was unworkable in practice. Some time this week, he will be having a little chat on the subject with Wendy Edmonds, the local MLA (Member of the [State] Legislature Assembly). It seems representative cluelessness is the same the world over. :-< Peter Murphy. <pkm@maths.uq.oz.au>