Telstra BigPond's MD, Justin Milne, speaks out on 'œonline piracy'

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 27 November 2008 09:39

IT Industry - Strategy

Milne insists that “We don't support that kind of activity - we've invested tens of millions of dollars over the last 3-4 years, to allow people to legally download high quality movies, which they're doing in significant numbers. We've invested in the wherewithal to allow people to download movies legally.”

Maiden then asks Milne: “What would you do if the court found one of your customers had acted improperly and was guilt of piracy?”

Milne says: “We don't condone piracy for one millisecond - to the extent they are pirating music, they aren't paying for it. Our view is that there are quite a number of remedies under the existing law regarding piracy. If the government wants to change the law - it can - under the full glare of democracy.”

Milne continues: “They should get the full glare of the public opinion on them. If they are good laws, they'll be passed, if not, they'll be answerable to the public at the time of the next election, which is the way democracy works.”

Milne explains that: “What's happening is an attempt to bypass democracy and do a sweetheart deal with ISPs.”

Milne concludes: “People want ISPs to filter the internet, catch the bad guys that purvey pornography and catch the copyright thieves. We don't condone any of that stuff - we want government to provide the laws and the framework in which everyone operates in and we support that.”

Watch the video in full at this link.