Regulation of obscene and indecent material via Internet

[Kent Leung <itkent@polyu.edu.hk>]

After reading the consulation paper of HK, my personal comments are:

1)      There should not have any difference on the publication media, on
paper or on Internet.  Therefore, using Option 1 to handle the complaints
would ensure more consistence than Option 2, at least I expect.

2)      The paper has not touched or avoided to touch the cryptographic
issue leads to a very unfair situation.  OAT access the following cases
might lead to different conclusion.

        A)      Put obscene material on Web page and offer to public;
        B)      Put obscene material on Web page for his members but protect
                from public;
        C)      Use E-mail to send obscene material but without encryption;
        D)      Use E-mail to send obscene material with encryption;
        E)      Same as A) but the server or author is located oversea where
                that piece of material is legally to publish.

3)      The author is the originator of those material but not the carrier
or ISP or administrators.  Therefore, the author should be liable for
whatever material they produced. Since the paper suggest there should not
have any pre-censorship to protect privacy, I don't see why code of practice
just for ISP or carrier is needed, it should be for every author.  It is
different from TV or radio where the service provide produce most of the
material.


Kent Leung
ITS, PolyU