Principal lawyer at legal firm White SW Computer Law, Steve White, said his firm was currently involved in three separate litigations against the country's number one ISP from dissatisfied business associates - none of which had met with any concern from Telstra. He described the ISP as an "800 pound gorilla" that took no notice when business partners expressed dissatisfaction.
"The 'I'll see you in court' attitude for all their problems is an unsatisfactory solution," White said.
Moreover, he believes many small ISPs are cautious when questioning Telstra about its business practices because ISPs in the country rely on the ISP giant.
"Quite often, their biggest supplier is their biggest competitor," he said.
"It's a very unsatisfactory state of business affairs." White said most frequently involved industry regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, was unable to objectively regulate the business practices of Telstra because both the ACCC and the ISP were primarily controlled by the federal government.
He said small ISPs and other IT companies needed to call on independent arbitraters to litigate against large, and government-run, organisations.
He acknowledged that some independent global organisations, such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation and ICANN, were resolving many disputes surrounding ownership of domain names.
However, few such bodies were available to small Australian IT businesses in relation to other types of technology-related dispute. White's Melbourne-based firm deals only with cases related to the local IT industry. The firm's clients mainly include Internet companies, software developers and government businesses.
As a lawyer, Mr White is calling the kettle black when he complains of the "I’ll see you in court" attitude.
This was the exact treatment I got from Mr White a number of years ago when a client of his (a Telstra partner!) ripped my company off!