A few weeks ago, I wrote about the possibility of the
content industry owning shares in the broadband networks and that if they did -
then P2P was merely another distribution channel.
Today, I will revisit the scenario, but this time from the
perspective of policy makers.
Consider, if you will, the role of the Australian government in P2P file sharing.
Source: Whirlpool Internet Surveys 2003-2007
According to the data available from Whirlpool (see chart
above) 57.7% of Australians share files using P2P.
The Australian government originally owned the majority of
Telstra’s shares and have been selling off chunks since 1997.
Telstra claims that they have 5,507,000 subscribers of
Therefore it follows that Telstra is the Carriage Service
Provider (CSP) that enables the highest level of P2P file sharing.
According to a government assessment of the ownership of
Telstra:
ABS ASSESSMENT
In considering the issue as to whether and when Telstra moved from a public
sector unit to a private sector unit the ABS notes the following: the T3 sale has
effectively reduced the Australian Government's shareholding in Telstra to 17%
- this is not sufficient to give it control in terms of determining general
corporate policy through the appointment of the majority of directors; the
installment
nature of the T3 sale means that while investors will have beneficial ownership
of the shares in terms of rights to dividend and instructing the trustee how to
vote at meetings of shareholders, the shares will be held in trust until
payment of the final installment in May 2008; from a statistical perspective the
ABS has concluded that the trust is a private sector unit, reflecting the
trustees' obligation to act in the beneficiaries' interests; for statistical
purposes the trustee, Telstra Sale Company Ltd, is a Commonwealth owned company
and should be classified for ABS statistical purposes as a public financial
corporation; until the Australian Government transfers the balance of its
Telstra shares to the Future Fund it retains some element of control through
its legislative powers.
Source: http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/39433889d406eeb9ca2570610019e9a5/237a2af8771134f1ca25728e007df19d!OpenDocument
In other words – the government owns 17% of a corporation
that last year posted revenues of $2,441,287,000
where a substantial amount of that sum must be directly attributable to payments
from persons acting in a manner contrary to the Copyright Act under the auspices
of the government’s own enacted Safe Harbour Provisions.[ii]
But who’s going to notice a lousy (US$) 2 and a half
billion?
Well, here’s the conundrum. If a court of law actually found
Telstra guilty of breaking the law by being on the wrong side of the Safe-Harbour
Provisions of the Act, and demanded that its self-incubated start-up had to
comply with industry take-down notices, then in accordance with the Proceeds
of Crime Act 2002 it would have to forfeit all the loot from the Future
Fund and bank it into the Victims of
Crime Fund!
So nothing really achieved; because basically both funds are
used mainly for paying public servant salaries.
Damn – for a moment, I though I was onto something there…..
Actually, I wonder if I can start a Government. Seems like a
good wicket.
You pass legislation making something illegal; satisfy the
lobbyists and the WIPO treaty co-signatories; then ignore what is happening in
your back yard by selling off big chunks of the law-breaking asset to the
public and hope that no-one will notice that you are making money from breaking
the law that you created in the first place!
Pity the poor ISP that is stuck with fighting for his very
existence right now in a law suit brought by AFACTS.
IInet has been chosen as the lucky representative of the
Australian ISP Industry that AFACTS has identified as the initial “Target of
Precedent Creating Law” to enforce compliance with the provisions of the
Why IInet? Well, AFACTS can’t sue Telstra, can it. That
would be like suing the Government and it would be bad form to sue the
Government.
There is a solution. The Government could admit that P2P is
now practised by the “moral majority” and therefore remove all compliance
obligations from the safe harbour provisions of the act.
It could also inform the copyright industries that they’re
on their own in this battle.
After all, the Government is never wrong. It’s the
Government, voted for by the moral majority – of whom 57% are file sharers.
[ii]
The calculation is based on 57.7% of the total of
Total internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . 2,486,000,000
Total IP & data access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,745,000,000
from the TELSTRA PDF Annual Report 2008
