WTF is up with Australia?

FluffyMcDeath

FluffyMcDeath

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They've gone mental down there with respect to internet censorship. I heard about this new law a while back but it was so bad I couldn't imagine any thinking politician voting for it .. but I realize now I put two words together there that don't sit well with each other.

Insane censorship.

That is some scary Fascist BS.
 
Ya, ArsTechnina, which I read daily, has been tracking this. It is scary. These next few years we will see a lot of clamp downs on the internet in a number of different ways. I think P2P is taking the bulk of the beating, but I've also seen attacks on encrypted communications as well. Australia is going off the deep-end here, where only countries like China and Iran are more restrictive.
 
Unfortunately, this is a global phenomenon.
Instead of embracing the freedom of speech that the Internet provides, world leaders are trying to bind it with the same restrictions that they're already using to control media.

At the same time, there are great commercial interest striving towards the same goal, as free speech and democracy ultimately are obstacles in the way of true capitalism (I still have some tinfoil hats left, if you still don't have one :)).

All in all, we are going to see a rapid decline in the ammount of independent web-sites. Tighter rules will be forced on blogs, and forums, and alternative ways of private communication, such as heavy encryption and dark nets, will be illegalized in the names of copyright protection and anti-terrorism.

It's not going to be any kind of Orwellian dystopia, but the Internet will not be the safe haven for free thoughts and freedom of speech that it used to be.
 
Yup, and it's a feckin' joke! Individuals, website owners and web hosts can face fines of $11,000 a day for posting links to any of the sites listed on the blacklist, however, given that only ISP's and the Government have access to said "blacklist" you have no idea if what you're posting is legal or not. Just another load of horse shit the Australian Government is set to force feed the population.
 
adz said:
Yup, and it's a feckin' joke! Individuals, website owners and web hosts can face fines of $11,000 a day for posting links to any of the sites listed on the blacklist, however, given that only ISP's and the Government have access to said "blacklist" you have no idea if what you're posting is legal or not. Just another load of horse shit the Australian Government is set to force feed the population.
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But by posting collections of links and waiting for the notice and immediately complying the entire list can be reverse engineered.

Also, it seems, you can get just about anyone on the list you care to by making a complaint. Sounds like a lot of fun to be had.

Quite frankly, some heads should be chopped off. The monkeys in government are not smart enough to be there. That is often the case with politicians. They have so little clue about what they are legislating that they regularly arse it up. It's been a long time since legislators could actually have half a chance of keeping up with the latest technology. If they can't understand it, they shouldn't make laws about it.
 
This is the way the Internet ends: not with a bang, but DPI

On the other hand, it's also how ISPs all over the world operate right now. Aussie ISPs like BigPond routinely offer bandwidth caps that appear absurdly low by world standards (how does AUS$29.95 a month for a 256Kbps connection and a 200MB cap grab you?)—but they also routinely offer "unlimited" access to preferred services like streaming video. Talk about picking winners and losers on the 'Net; this approach basically guarantees that Internet users will go with the ISP's preferred service, making it difficult for independent services to compete.

What a scam!
 
Glaucus said:
This is the way the Internet ends: not with a bang, but DPI

On the other hand, it's also how ISPs all over the world operate right now. Aussie ISPs like BigPond routinely offer bandwidth caps that appear absurdly low by world standards (how does AUS$29.95 a month for a 256Kbps connection and a 200MB cap grab you?)—but they also routinely offer "unlimited" access to preferred services like streaming video. Talk about picking winners and losers on the 'Net; this approach basically guarantees that Internet users will go with the ISP's preferred service, making it difficult for independent services to compete.

What a scam!
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I could go on all day about the crap we have to put up with, from 'net' perspective of course, Australia is at least 10 years behind the rest of the world on that front. Quite frankly, I reckon we (the Australian population) should just outright boycott the 'net' when they mandate this dubious 'clean feed'.
 
Nah, it's only delaying the inevitable. I fully expect our current government to clamp down on us here in Canada. Governments world wide have been jumping on this draconian copyright bandwagon, and I suspect most of them can't even spell "copyright" never mind understand the consequences. Personally I think it's time to track down the top RIAA execs and behead them in the streets. But that's just me.
 
Glaucus said:
Governments world wide have been jumping on this draconian copyright bandwagon, and I suspect most of them can't even spell "copyright" never mind understand the consequences.
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But the guys writing the legislation likely understand. The more the net can be shut down, the less inconvenient information and ideas will spread.
 
I agree. And the politicians are learning to use their "think of the children" trick to clamp down on our rights and freedoms. The more I see this the more I believe we need to abolish all forms of censorship. That's why I've been looking into the freenet project lately.
 
When China blocks the net it's news.

Oh but,
"We manage the Internet according to law ... to prevent the spread of harmful information."
Click to expand...

It's all the same old same old.

Glaucus said:
The more I see this the more I believe we need to abolish all forms of censorship. That's why I've been looking into the freenet project lately.
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Freenet is interesting but there is only one real solution and that is to take back control of the legislative process and that requires education of the masses to understand why that is necessary and that requires dissemination of information and that is what internet suppression is about. It's designed to stifle people power, because government by the elite can only be maintained by controlling information.

Fortunately for the elite, most people are happy to be ignorant and can't think two thoughts together anyway and would never believe that their shepherds might have a taste for mutton.
 
Once again I have to agree. I've always argued that technology is not the answer to privacy and freedom. Only laws can provide that. And although I am upset at the government for introducing draconian laws, I think I am even more upset at those who mindlessly support them. It's like my friend here at work who believes photo-radar cameras were put into use for our own safety and not just to generate revenue. As long as there are suckers out there that believe whatever the government feeds them we are doomed. And this, for me at least, highlights the greatest flaw of democracy - people are easy to fool.
 
Good to see the STASI is alive and well.
 
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