Sandra Bayley (Greens) - Responding to "Internet Filtering / SOPA"

I recieved a response from Sandra Bayley, a candidate for the greens in my area.

The Gist:

"The Greens share many of your concern's over the Government's proposed Internet filter and the Stop Online Piracy Act."

Sandra also goes on to say that she's concerned about piracy and protecting children from harmful material on the Internet.

Read the full response below...

From: Sandra Bayley - Thursday 19th Jan 2012 

The Greens share many of your concern's over the Government's proposed Internet filter and the Stop Online Piracy Act. 

It's not my area of expertise but I known our Federal communications spokesperson, Scott Ludrum has spoken out against the Internet filter on several occasions. His speech to parliament in 2010 is at greensmps.org.au/content/speech/internet-filtering

Like you I recognise the potential negative to ordinary people outweighs the purported aims of these laws.

I am concerned about piracy and it's detrimental effects on game developers, authors, musicians and artists. From everything I understand, SOPA does little, if anything to tackle the causes of piracy like you mentioned and does nothing to look after the people who generate the content and ideas.

Similarly withe the proposed internet filter, I share the concerns of many parents of wanting to protect children from harmful material on the Internet. But it needs to a system that works and doesn't stifle legitimate freedom of expression  and debate.

Thanks for writing to me Nik and I hope I've answered your concerns.

Sandra and team.

Sandra Bayley
Candidate for Ashgrove

[Note: In my original email to our politicians, I didn't have the sections on 'Misrepresentation of the scale of these "Problems"', and 'Alternatives'- So Sandra's response should be considered in the correct context]