[AusNOG] Welcome to Metadata Retention

[Mark Newton]

On Mar 2, 2015, at 2:51 AM, Paul Wilkins <paulwilkins369 at gmail.com> wrote:

> The fundamental qualifier is whether you provide a 'carriage service', as defined by the Telecommunications Act, 1997. (The Broadcasting Services Act relies on the definition in the Telco Act).
> […]
> If you don't touch the physical or data link layers, the bill may or may not apply, subject to interpretation and legal argument. It's not clear if a communication at the IP layer is to the opposite IP (which arguably requires transmission by electromagnetic energy). Then again, IP doesn't deal with electromagnetic radiation, so perhaps not, but I wouldn't think this a strong argument.

The only issue in the Telecommunications Act which turns on the transmission of electromagnetic energy is whether or not you’re a carrier.

You can be a carriage service provider without being a carrier.

Every ISP is a carriage service provider, even though most of them don’t touch the physical or data link layers.  If you try to use “interpretation and legal argument” concerning lack of contact with physical and data link layers as a reason to evade regulations pertaining to carriage service providers, the regulator will laugh at you and regulate you anyway, because the regulations were written by people who don’t know or care what a physical layer or data link layer is.


  - mark