Internet a 'moral-free zone', warns Murdoch man

By Declan McCullagh

The president of media giant News Corp has warned that the Internet is a "moral-free zone," with the medium's future threatened by pornography, spam and rampant piracy.

Speaking at an annual conference organised by the Progress & Freedom Foundation in the US, Peter Chernin decried the "enormous amount" of worthless content online. He also predicted that without new laws to stave off illicit copying, News Corp's vast library of movies may never be made available in digital form.

"The vast potential of broadband has so far benefited nobody as clearly as it's benefited downloaders of pornography and pirates of digital content," Chernin told an audience of about 200. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp owns 20th Century Fox and Fox Television in the US and BskyB and News International in the UK.

"The stall tactics and smoke screens of those who have purposely ignored digital shoplifting can no longer be tolerated and can no longer mask the ulterior motives that have driven them all along," Chernin said. "The truth is that anyone unwilling to condemn outright theft by digital means is either amoral or wholly self-serving."

Chernin decisively attacked sexually explicit material on the Internet.

"The prevalence of pornographic Web sites and emails is a lot more than an insult to common decency," Chernin said. "It's an increasing reason to keep kids and families off the Internet. And these are only part of the virtual logjam of valueless clutter."

Declan McCullagh writes for News.com