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97 03 26

Austria Offline: Great success, big response ISP-Association Austria founded. ”To unplug a whole country from the internet was a worldwide unique action which has thrown the public´s attention at the point,“ said Michael Haberler of the ISP “EUnet (photo taken at the pressconference, Vienna, 240397). ”And the point is that it is impossible to maintain internet services in Austria within the current legislative framework - the situation has to be cleared quickly“, so Helmut Jahnel, speaker of ISP Netway and ISP´s Vianet strategic mastermind Michael Vesely. Vianet dedicated its pr-department to the action "Austria Offline" of the ad-hoc founded ISP-Association Austria. Everybody is happy that it turns out that this problematic matter, to hold ISP´s responsible for the content they may not control, has reached public attention for the first time. National and international media - print, tv, radio, web (BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Wired, ZDnet, Yahoo and so on) - put this unique action in their headlines, frontpages and topstories. The first reaction of the Austrian Ministry of Justice was very positive, the government will examine the matter immediately. herbert.koczera@quintessenz.at erich-moechel@quintessenz.at Foto: Harald Wosihnoj