The Attorney-General’s Department last year claimed that no minutes exist of a clandestine meeting between the Department, ISPs and content industry representatives to discuss ‘solutions’ to online file-sharing.[1]

In heavily redacted documents released last month to Rodney Serkowski, former President of Pirate Party Australia, eight pages were censored. The notice reads “the following eight pages […] are hand written notes taken by an officer of the Attorney-General’s Department of the 23 September 2011 meeting. These notes are exempt pursuant to s47C.”[2]

Pirate Party Australia fails to understand why the Attorney-General’s Department felt it necessary to claim no minutes were taken.

According to Section 47C of the Act, access to information must generally be given unless it would be contrary to the public interest. The documents are unclear on what the intention of the meeting was. One document claims “the upcoming roundtable will be an initial meeting to gauge the […] ISP and copyright owner positions and obtain an update on the progress of their discussions to date.”[3] The AG’s Department “will consult with relevant consumer groups once industry discussions have reached an appropriate stage.”[4]

However, the documents also say that the department must “focus [on] the difficult issues needing resolution…We are keen to avoid any perceptions that could potentially unbalance the negotiation and may compromise the effectiveness of the discussions.”[5]

“How on earth is a meeting discussing possible regulatory regimes for file-sharing on the Internet ‘not in the public interest’ to know about?” said Simon Frew, Deputy President of Pirate Party Australia.

“There has been an array of draconian laws passed in other countries. In France they have the notorious HADOPI legislation which disconnects people after three accusations of illicit sharing, and in the United States the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) – which are currently in their Congress – aim to enforce a censorship regime against sites that could facilitate file-sharing. It is vital that we avoid the introduction of such onerous laws here. All we know is a meeting took place behind closed doors, excluding all consumer representatives and with blacked out ‘notes.’ It smells a little fishy to say the least,” he concluded.

[1] http://delimiter.com.au/2011/10/03/no-minutes-taken-at-secret-bittorrent-meeting/
[2] https://pirateparty.org.au/documents/Serkowski%20-%20part%20(b)(3).pdf
[3] https://pirateparty.org.au/documents/Serkowski%20-%20part%20(c)(6)(7)%26(8).pdf
[4] https://pirateparty.org.au/documents/Serkowski%20-%20part%20(a)(4).pdf
[5] (As above).