Irish technology journalists come under a certain degree of flak from bloggers, techies and the industry at times.
In some cases they pick up the “wrong end of the stick” and either misquote us or misunderstand things. In other cases they recycle press releases without actually reading them. Of course there are plenty of capable technology journalists although we tend to focus on their errors as opposed to lauding their successes.
This week’s column in the Sunday Business Post by Adrian Weckler is a good example of a technology journalist posing some real questions and not pontificating without evidence.
His article “No sex on the internet. we’re Irish” is worth reading, as it raises a number of questions about Ireland, Irish society and our rather bizarre relationship with sex.
I broached the subject here a couple of times in the past few months, primarily as a result of the .xxx debacle.
In the case of Weckler’s article it is nice to see that he got comments from both David Curtin, CEO of the IEDR and Paul Durrant of the ISPAI.
I wonder if the quote from Durrant is a forebearer of change:
“We’ve been looking at this issue,” said Durant. “I don’t see any reason why Irish ISPs shouldn’t host material equivalent to what you see in magazines in the newsagents. The whole of Irish society is moving.”
The article did not touch on Irish legislation in this area however, which is a pity or it could be simply due to the murkiness of it.
The other claim that Weckler made is factually incorrect:
Most hosting companies abide by the code of practice of the Irish Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI).
Hosting companies that are members of the ISPAI abide by the code of practice.
Although the membership of the ISPAI has grown over the last 12 months it does not include some of the more prominent Irish hosting companies yet.
It would be safe to assume that the more established companies, be they members of the ISPAI or not, would abide by the spirit of the code if not the letter due to the confused status of the legislation at present.
I’m not advocating that the Irish internet or Irish hosting companies need to start hosting hardcore porn or anything like that.
However if my local cornershop can stock erotic magazines and soft porn surely Irish hosting companies deserve the right to choose what they host for their clients?
Good post Michele. I think that if it’s legal to ell on a magazine shelf then hosting companies should be able to host the online equivalent. I’m sure many would choose not to, but I don’t see why they couldn’t – in fact I wasn’t even aware that they weren’t at present.
Piaras
There are two prongs to the problem at present.
On the one side the legislation is vague at best and companies such as ourselves are signed up to the ISPAI’s code of conduct, so until the code changes and the legislation is clarified we are facing a legal quagmire.
The other side of it is whether business would suffer if we allowed adult content on our network. I’d like to see the legislation clarified so that we could make that call without risk of ambiguity.
I think an important aspect to it is if hosting companies are allowed to allow adult content to their network, they’re going to have to be very transparent about it. I’m sure there would be some companies, i.e. your AIBs, etc, that would probably choose another supplier than be linked to adult content.
Piaras
very true.
I would be very wary about hosting hardcore adult content, but if the legislation etc., was less ambiguous I would like to have the options open to me. Playboy.com, for example, would be a very lucrative and high profile contract for any hosting provider. At present such sites cannot be hosted in Ireland.
“At present such sites cannot be hosted in Ireland”.
I would have thought this is that hosting providers choose not to rather than can’t.
ISPAI CoP does not forbid its members from hosting “adult content” but does require members to refrain from hosting 3rd party content that is “DELIBERATELY CALCULATED to cause unreasonable anxiety inconvenience or stress to others”. If adult material was hosted, I don’t think that that outcome is the intention, especially if the main content was behind a members logon and that publicly available content was not explicit. Most users will not have a clue where it is hosted anyway(especially as it is unliklely to have a .ie domain.) BTW what about all the adult premium rate number blocks now being distributed with the blessing of government by COMREG expressly for adult services, which will be regulated by REGTEL? Oh! I suppose being in Ireland they’re all going to offer recipies for wholesome soda bread and scones (where litigation prevents you allowing child access to the instructions in case the little darlings burn themselves on the oven door)?