Australia is considering legislation that would open the way for copyright owners to take legal action against search engines for caching and archiving.

Google are of the opinion that proposed changes to Australia’s copyright laws could drive the country back to “the pre-Internet era”.

Like all good arguments, there is truth on both sides.

True, it would be less likely that Australian content would show up on web searches, although I’m sure many search-savvy webmasters would ensure they opted-in.

Also true that webmasters would have more control over who, or what, is using their content.

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

The internet wouldn’t grind to a halt, but Google might.