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    CAMPAIGN TO PREVENT UNWORKABLE NETWORK REGULATION IN AUSTRALIA
                            30 August 1995

             This alert gives details on what you can do.

 (This only takes two minutes.  You can spare two minutes, can't you?)

   PLEASE WIDELY REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WITH THIS BANNER INTACT
               REDISTRIBUTE ONLY UNTIL 1 September 1995
             REPRODUCE THIS ALERT ONLY IN RELEVANT FORUMS

          Distributed by Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.
                      (efa-board@efa.org.au)

_______________________________________________________________________


CONTENTS 
Latest News 
Background 
What You Can Do Now


LATEST NEWS

As of 8:45 am CST this morning (30 August) 13 responses had been
generated as a result of this Action Alert.  Many more are needed.
Please pass this alert on to friends and colleagues.


BACKGROUND

This Friday, 1 September 1995, is the closing date for submissions on
matters raised in the Consultation Paper on the Regulation of On-Line
Information Services.  This paper was published by the federal
government Department of Communications and the Arts (DoCA).

It is important that individuals and community groups take advantage of
this opportunity to express their views.  The EFA is making a
submission, which you can read at
<ftp://ftp.efa.org.au//pub/efa/consresp.txt>.  You may also want to
read the ACS/EFA Joint Task Force comments on the consultation paper at
<ftp://ftp.efa.org.au//pub/efa/jtfcmnts.txt>.  Both of these documents
have been recently posted to the newsgroups aus.org.efa and
aus.org.acs. If you support the EFA stand and/or have comments of your
own to make you should let the Information and Communications Services
Policy Group (ICSPG) know by following the instructions below.

The DoCA consultation paper was published on 7 July 1995.  It identified
a number of objectives for a regulatory regime to be applied to BBS and
other services. These objectives were:

* protecting freedom of expression, especially with regard to private
communication between adults;

* limiting children's exposure to harmful or unsuitable material;

* supporting the development of new services that enhance Australia's
competitiveness;

* ensuring that emerging service industries are not burdened with
unnecessary costs; and

* aligning censorship regimes for new services with the regimes that
have been adopted for other media.

The paper proposed a strategy for regulation consisting of three key
elements:

* a self-regulatory framework incorporating a code of practice and a
complaints handling procedure,

* an education component that could use services such as the Education
Network Australian initiative(EdNA) to assist parents and teachers in
protecting children from unsuitable material, and

* the introduction of offence provisions to provide sanctions against
persons who deliberately breach community standards.

Although there are some good points made in the paper, EFA believes
that the central proposal of regulation will not prevent access to
"contentious" material.  EFA think that it is a mistake to assume that
the best and only solution to the problems is regulation.  Technical
solutions available and under development are not considered in the
paper.  EFA is opposed to the principle of regulation because no amount
of regulation short of cutting Australia off from the rest of the world
will work.  In fact many of the reasons why regulation won't work are
mentioned in the consultation paper.

In its submission EFA is recommending that:

* It should be acknowledged that regulation will not be effective.

* No new legislation should be introduced.

* Technical solutions should be promoted.

* A parental and teacher empowerment program should be set up to
provide parents and teachers with access to filtering technology.


WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW

READ the consultation paper if you haven't already.  It is available at
<http://www.dca.gov.au/paper_2.html>.  Also read the EFA's submission -
available at <ftp://ftp.efa.org.au//pub/efa/consresp.txt>.  

WRITE to the ICSPG by 1 September and tell them of your concerns,
whatever your point of view may be.  If you agree with the EFA you
could simply state that you support EFA's position on the consultation
paper, in a letter like this:

To: consult@dca.gov.au 
Cc: feedback@efa.org.au

To whom it may concern,

I would like to indicate to the Information and Communications Services
Policy Group that I support Electronic Frontiers Australia's position
as set out in their submission in response to the Consultation Paper on
the Regulation of On-Line Information Services.

Regards,

<your name here>

The Internet mail address for submissions is consult@dca.gov.au.  If you
do send an electronic response, please include a cc: to
feedback@efa.org.au in the header.

The Australia Post address is:

Information and Communications Services Policy Group 
Department of Communications and the Arts 
PO Box 2154 
CANBERRA ACT 2601

If you send a snail mail response, please let us know by sending a
short message outlining what you have written to feedback@efa.org.au.


GIVE a copy of this document to a friend.

FINALLY if you've read this far and hopefully acted in some way,

T H A N K S

for your time and attention.  Your input could make a difference!


GETTING IN TOUCH WITH EFA

Phone: (08) 384 7316    International +618 384 7316

Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. 
PO Box 382 
North Adelaide  
SA  5006

Internet/UseNet:

general info auto-reply:      efa-info@efa.org.au 
general enquiries:            ask@efa.org.au

Subscribe to the aus.org.efa newsgroup.  If you can't get news, join the
EFA mailing list by sending mail to efa-request@efa.iinet.com.au with
the word "subscribe" in the body of the message.

Fidonet:

general/secretary:            EFA at 3:632/552 
membership:                   Brenda Aynsley at 3:620/243

The aus.org.efa newsgroup is also available as the EFA fidonet echo.

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Dr Michael Baker              |Speaking for himself, not EASAMS
IASSF Group, EASAMS Australia.|AKA: mbaker@apanix.apana.org.au
tmb@iassf.easams.com.au       |     chairman@efa.org.au