Google Warns Australia of Going Back To Pre-Internet Era

Internet search engine leader, Google has warned Australia (why does Google start sounding like Microsoft with each passing day?) of going back to “pre-internet era” if the proposed changes to Australia’s copyright laws are legislated.

“Given the vast size of the Internet, it is impossible for a search engine to contact personally each owner of a web page to determine whether the owner desires its web page to be searched, indexed or cached,” Google said Tuesday.

“If such advanced permission was required, the internet would promptly grind to a halt,” Google’s senior counsel and head of public policy Andrew McLaughlin told the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

Such requirements would “condemn the Australian public to the pre-internet era and will place them at a serious competitive disadvantage with those in other countries who have such access,” McLaughlin said.

Link

I agree that it is impossible for Google or any other search engines to individually contact owners of each site. However I disagree on Google’s assertion that it will grind internet to a halt or even more far-fetched that it will move Australia back to “pre-internet era”. Google assertion isn’t logical.