Porn was for software filter test says defendant

By PETER GRIFFIN

A man convicted of importing more than 100,000 illegal pornographic images says he was gathering the pictures to test filtering software that would block the material.

Computer specialist Bryce Coad said an error of judgment that led him to bring the electronic images across New Zealand's border would probably destroy his career in the IT industry.

Yesterday, in the Manukau District Court, he lost a request for discharge without conviction and was fined $750 after pleading guilty to importing material deemed objectionable under the Films, Videos and Publications Act 1993 and the Customs Act.

He had earlier sought to defend himself on a range of charges but changed his plea on agreement that other charges would be withdrawn.

The Customs Service, acting on a tip-off, had seized a laptop and two hard drives belonging to Coad.

They contained objectionable images, including some depicting children being sexually exploited.

The computer hardware was seized in June 2000 as Coad came through Auckland Airport after a business trip to Israel, where, he said, he downloaded the images from the internet for use in developing his Moderator net-filtering software.

Coad said the software was designed to go beyond mainstream content-filtering software such as Net Nanny by targeting newsgroups and internet relay chat channels where the worst porn-trading was taking place.

"It specifically targets the most evil news groups that are there, using information from the people that are posting images, as well as the images themselves," he said.

Moderator would then compare information about the images stored in a database with downloaded pictures to determine whether they were objectionable and should be blocked.

Judge David Harvey said that while the software Coad was developing was legitimate and if commercialised would be useful for safety-conscious net users, the large number of images and the fact that Coad had not declared them as he went through Customs warranted a conviction.

"The number of images would probably justify a higher penalty. [But] the development of such a utility should be encouraged," the judge said.

Previous porn prosecutions are believed to have resulted from the seizure of up to 80,000 objectionable images, so the Coad case is one of the biggest in New Zealand history.

Coad said the implications of the conviction would go far beyond the $750 fine.

"It's equivalent to [the judge] chopping off my left hand and telling me to be a concert violinist," he said.

Last night, he tendered his resignation as chief technology officer and board member at software specialist and internet provider Zombie. He said the reputation of his own firm, Lookitup, would be irreparably damaged.

He had no immediate plans to continue work on Moderator, and said he would probably appeal against the conviction.