Recent action by the Australian Government may see Google and many other popular websites banned in Australia under existing censorship laws.
Full story »Recent action by the Australian Government may see Google and many other popular websites banned in Australia under existing censorship laws.
Full story »
dave
15 years 27 weeks 4 days 9 hours ago
Please help prevent internet censorship
The Getup group are trying to bring attention to Internet censorship. There is an interview with the Australian Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, tonight. You can participate by suggesting questions that will be asked of Senator Conroy. More information is here:
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet&id=580
So please vote this up so that more Aussies will be exposed to this story and if you are an Aussie please do what you can to prevent these ridiculous laws coming into place or being enforced.
aboutblank
15 years 27 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago
On the plus side, at least
On the plus side, at least more people will be forced to look into censorship and make their desicion about it. For a very long time, I've been warning anyone willing to listen about freedom in the digital age. A number of these people dismiss me because it seemed like something abstract that wouldn't actually come to pass. Other people misjudge how important it is for freedom and how censorship will inevitably be used beyond its original stated mission. Some people even compare me to a raving lunatic.
So while it is good for people to finally wake up, I've found that my society is generally apathetic and too self-centred to worry about anything larger than themselves. As a result of these experiences, I've become very pessimistic about freedom in Australia.
In closing: I think the internet is bad. I'm glad they're finally getting rid of it. :(
knowing-card
15 years 27 weeks 4 days 9 hours ago
I'm not Australian but...
I've voted it up. Those laws do seem pretty stupid. Good luck.
motters
15 years 27 weeks 2 days 16 hours ago
Link, and be damned
"If I was linking to XYZ blog, and XYZ blog was linking to ABC blog who had linked to the list, all the pages in the chain are illegal, because each one links to prohibited content. Any site linking to me then becomes illegal, and so on."
This is a nonsensical law, which may actually make the entire internet illegal, since ultimately all web pages are connected or linked in one way or another (that's the whole point!). This shows just how out of touch with the modern world of communication those making the legislation are.
dave
15 years 27 weeks 2 days 12 hours ago
Knee-jerk reactions
The government is trying to evoke, from the public, a knee-jerk reaction to child pornography and other vile internet-distributed material, to justify what they are doing.
As any sane individual (who gave it much thought) would realise, this will not solve the problem. It is a band-aid solution and one which affect the vast majority who use the internet for legitimate needs. It is akin to banning the use of certain transport routes which are known to be used for trafficking drugs. You don't get rid of drugs by blocking roads. All you do is force drug traffickers to use other means for distribution and the public are the only ones who suffer.
Of course, no one would ever dream of doing such a stupid thing as blocking roads to stop drug trafficking, but apparently they are stupid enough to try and block the internet to stop the trafficking of child pornography.
Here is the full interview with Senator Stephen Conroy:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s2521164.htm
It's obviously a tricky thing to deal with but this is no solution. Over and over again Conroy says the black list wouldn't work if it were made publicly available. But that is a completely illogical and unethical assertion.