Slashdot Mirror

Australia's unannounced 'totalitarian' web filter causes alarm http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-05/17/australia-internet-block Internet chiefs call for checks, balances in censorship battle
http://www.afr.com/p/technology/internet_chiefs_call_for_checks_Ey7wPYhsXUaMqvnZavS1SP

Reckless Oz regulator runs roughshod over rights
http://www.zdnet.com/reckless-oz-regulator-runs-roughshod-over-rights-7000015473/

ASIC request sparks internet censorship
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/asic-request-sparks-internet-censorship/story-e6frgakx-1226644514861

New fears for web censorship in Australia
http://www.itwire.com/it-policy-news/govenrment-tech-policy/59872-new-fears-for-web-censorship-in-australia

If you think this is about karma, then you fundamentally misunderstand the problem.

The Future of Terrorism: What al-Qaida Really Wants

By the way, ever hear of David Hicks, or Bali? Shayden Thorne? Maybe one or two other things?

Threat from enemy within makes anti-terrorism laws indispensable

Decisions have consequences, even if decision makers sometimes go into denial. In the weekend edition of the Herald, Debra Jopson provided case studies of the 21 men who have been convicted of terrorism-related charges following Operation Pendennis in Sydney and Melbourne and Operation Neath in Melbourne. A large number are of Lebanese Muslim descent.

In his address to the Sydney Institute on January 24, the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, David Irvine, pointed out that ''of the 38 people prosecuted for terrorism-related offences in Australia, 37 were Australian citizens and 34 were either born here or lived here since childhood''. Clearly home-grown terrorism is a threat in Australia.

The breakdown of the jihadist-related terrorism prosecutions is revealing. In a paper titled Explaining Australia-Lebanon Jihadist Connections, Monash University academic Andrew Zammit broke down the statistics as at September last year. He pointed out that 20 out of 33 men prosecuted ''have been of Lebanese descent''. Moreover, ''while Lebanese-Australian Muslims make up 60 per cent of those charged over alleged jihadist activity, they constitute only 20 per cent of all Australian Muslims''

Australia a target for 'ideological terrorist attacks'

There is more to find if one cares to dig.

No... but a 17-year failure to warm probably does

http://theconversation.com/fact-check-has-global-warming-paused-12439

... Things have changed. "Anthropogenic Global Warming" (AGW) advocates repeatedly and consistently stated that a trend of 10 years or more proved their point... [Jane Q. Public, 2013-05-05]

Presumably you're referring to "scientists." Also, I've repeatedly said:

Since climate is an average over ~20 years ... climate is only meaningful when discussing averages over ~20 years. ... I've repeatedly stressed that we need ~20 years to average out weather noise. ... professional climatologists usually smooth data and model output using ~20 year averages. ... It's also important to remember that a ~20 year timespan is necessary to obtain statistically significant temperature trends...

In fact, I've repeatedly told you that ~20 years are needed:

As I've explained, climate is the global average over ~20 years. [Dumb Scientist to Jane Q. Public, 2010-02-16]

This graph shows why scientists prefer trends calculated over at least ~20 years. [Dumb Scientist to Jane Q. Public, 2013-01-21]

I've even gone into more detail, showing you a paper that says at least 17 years are required:

... at least 17 years are needed to establish a statistically significant trend of global surface temperatures. [Dumb Scientist to Jane Q. Public, 2012-12-05]

Of course, you ignored me just like you previously ignored riverat1:

And 10 years has what to do with climate trends? Not much. A recent paper by Santer et. al. calculated the signal (climate) to noise (weather/natural variation) ratio for climate trends. For 10 years the S/N ratio is less than 1. They found it takes 17 years to be sure the signal is greater than the noise. [riverat1 to Jane Q. Public, 2011-11-19]

For global temperatures, Santer et al. 2011 shows that one needs to average over ~17 years of data to obtain statistically significant climate trends. Here's another explanation by Tamino. Also, the Skeptical Science trend calculator helps visualize statistical significance. [Dumb Scientist, 2012-08-15]

Perhaps your ode to conspiracy theories distracted you, but I also linked to another method of calculating significance which is even more conservative:

Also, Bart

"One cold year says nothing about the trend in the Earth's climate."

No... but a 17-year failure to warm probably does.

That's from the IPCC itself. (And you should see the draft of their upcoming assessment report! It puts the lie to a lot of former claims about AGW.)

"For every small increase in average temps caused by global warming, larger extreme temperatures are seen throughout the year. Higher highs and lower lows but an overall average of warmer."

That was the argument... 10 years ago.

Things have changed.

"Anthropogenic Global Warming" (AGW) advocates repeatedly and consistently stated that a trend of 10 years or more proved their point... now they're saying that a slump in warming of 17 years means nothing.

That kind of hypocrisy just chaps my ass.

Is this bill PR to divert attention? The government has given itself permission to breach privacy anyways: http://www.news.com.au/technology/nicola-roxon-backflip-gives-green-light-for-online-spying/story-e6frfro0-1226464553027 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/data-retention-laws-risky-canberra-told/story-fn4htb9o-1226465841909

With all due respect to the victims and their families and friends - this isn't world news. In quite a few parts of the world, not just Iraq and Afghanistan, that's a small note somewhere on page 5 of the local newspaper.

It seems the world disagrees with you. This are all page one stories at sites that span the world.

Germany - USA: Explosionen beim Boston-Marathon - drei Tote, hundert Verletzte
Russia , (Act of terrorism committed in the U.S., numerous victims reported
Australia - US on alert after blasts shatter Boston Marathon killing 3, wounding 140
India - Boston Marathon bombing kills 3, injures over 130
Argentina - Bombs kill 3 people, wound more than 100 at Boston Marathon
United Arab Emirates - Boston Marathon: 3 killed, more than 140 injured as 2 bombs explode near finish line
South Africa - Boston terror attack: Three killed, 100 injured
Japan - 3 dead, more than 110 hurt after two bombs explode near Boston Marathon finish line

So it's not news-worthy for the body count and not for the fact that there was a bomb or two.

Actually it is newsworthy, for both reasons. Mass casualty events tend to be that way. Last I heard the number of bombs was 5-7.

And, most importantly and most disgustingly, we are still thinking in tribal norms. Our own dead and wounded are more important than the foreign ones.

Every family looks after its own first, as does every country. But as to tribes - there aren't really any tribes in the West anymore, none that function anyway. (Were the last the Scotts?) You might try that line of thinking on people from parts of the world that actually do have functioning tribes, such as the Middle East, or Africa. Your disgust will probably be taken as evidence of being crazy. It wouldn't even be a question to them - of course you look after the tribe first, it is a matter of survival. If you can convince the Arabs that making peace with the Jews is preferable to killing them, you might have a chance a reducing tribalism, but I doubt you can eliminate it.

Twenty years without warming and the wheels are starting to come off the AGW bus.

In 36 days you will learn that you have terminal cancer, and
that your useless existence will soon come to an end.

The world will be better off when you die. That much is certain.

Twenty years without warming and the wheels are starting to come off the AGW bus.

In Australia the govt. was thinking of introducing it but has backed off. So do not think it can never happen in law. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/nicola-roxon-to-spare-the-right-to-offend-in-discrimination-u-turn/story-fn59niix-1226565490811

Whether the report itself is dumb I won't speculate about. But it does not say what OP claims it says.

TFA does NOT say that "global warming" has reduced labor by 10%. What is says is that summers -- summers in general -- reduce labor by 10% compared to the rest of the year. There is no mention at all about current levels being caused by global warming.

TFA then goes on to explain that *IF* Global Warming continues at the rate some people predict, those summer reductions will THEN increase and cause reduced production.

Even the head of the IPCC, Pachauri, admits there has been "a 17-year pause" in Global Warming. Some people need to catch up and get with the program. The draft report of the IPCC's upcoming Assessment Report has toned things down a lot too. Like admissions that there is little to no evidence after all that cyclonic energy (hurricanes, etc.) will increase, and more.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC’s climate science panel has acknowledged a 17-year pause in global temperature rises, confirmed recently by Britain's Met Office, 'Nothing off-limits' in climate debate

For RSS the warming is not significant for over 23 years.
For RSS: +0.127 +/-0.136 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1990
For UAH, the warming is not significant for over 19 years.
For UAH: 0.143 +/- 0.173 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1994
For Hacrut3, the warming is not significant for over 19 years.
For Hadcrut3: 0.098 +/- 0.113 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1994
For Hacrut4, the warming is not significant for over 18 years.
For Hadcrut4: 0.095 +/- 0.111 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1995
For GISS, the warming is not significant for over 17 years.
For GISS: 0.116 +/- 0.122 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1996
Has Global Warming Stalled?

this has been around for months
Old story

Books are a separate scam helped by government law. Basically local publishers have a legal monopoly for the sale of wholesale books to retailers. They say the justification of excessive prices are there to subsidize the publishing of local authors. Which they claim would otherwise could not earn a living if they were published by international publishing houses.

"Under current rules, Australian publishers have 30 days to publish a local edition of a new foreign book; if an Australian edition is published, booksellers may not import the foreign edition, which is often cheaper."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/business-old/shorten-closes-book-on-imports/story-e6frg9h6-1226008401430

And some of them are on fire at the moment.

Venice was a first-world country. Now you can swim in its streets.

So fucking find one that isn't:

Sorry. Not sure how that happened, but it was supposed to go here:

"ATTORNEY-GENERAL Nicola Roxon has authorised the extradition of an ethnic Tamil, wanted by the US on offshore terrorism charges, despite his fears he will be deported to Sri Lanka and punished. Ms Roxon signed the extradition order in February, sparking a legal challenge by the man's lawyers, who insist he has never been a threat to the US or Australia and that the alleged offences are more political than security-related. Documents obtained by The Australian under Freedom of Information laws show the extradition case was considered especially sensitive by Australian bureaucrats ... The FOI decision-maker has censored 1 1/2 pages of the preliminary advice to Ms Roxon, fearing the contests would harm international relations."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/foi/roxon-clears-tamils-extradition-to-us/story-fn8r0e18-1226438076806

What the heck do personal attacks against Julia Gillard from some political extremist nutjob have to do with a defamation lawsuit??! Do you think Gillard thought "oh, poor Assange, he has most of the free world comin down on him like a ton of bricks, calls for his assassination, better not call his a criminal until it is actually proven - I am a lawer after all". No sensitivity shown by her actions there, and your lamenting the timing of a lawsuit? Not the only criminality she has been tied to.

However, its not a good time to be seen to be attacking Julia Gillard given all the personal attacks she has received. I would expect it to do more harm than good.

More harm than good? The comment smells of a "Labor is better than Liberal" type mentality. Might I direct you to the Wikileaks revelation about the Labor party (not including the espionage spying scandal of their members on behalf of a foreign government), but the cable that reveals that Labors political agenda and policies are all but identical to that of Liberal. Like the United states and the UK, Australia has moved into a two party "moving center" system where both parties are essentially the same and little more than a Corporatocracy: CANBERRA 00000545 002 OF 003

Gillard recognizes that to become Prime Minister, she must move to the Center, and show her support for the Alliance with the United States. Albrechtson, who attended the June 2008 Australian-American Leadership Dialogue in Washington with Gillard, wrote that Gillard's speech "could have been given by the Howard Government."

On the sensitivity of Gillard:

[Gillard] enjoys taunting the Opposition but, as one journalist noted, "the only problem is getting her off the corpse." Late last year, in a widely publicized exchange, Gillard pummeled Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop (who was under pressure in a Treasury portfolio she has since relinquished). Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull later described Gillard as "very nasty" and "vicious." A visiting U.S. political scientist noted after watching Question Time that the Opposition normally heckled Government speakers but in stark contrast, they were completely silent when Gillard was on her feet.

I hope your watching. Not that we in the U.S. are any better but we do try to "look" we care about privacy. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/apples-wozniak-wants-to-become-australian/story-fn3dxiwe-1226481489824

"In the interview with the Financial Review, Wozniak said the national broadband network was one of the reasons he wants to become a citizen."

Recently there were two cases of FGM (female genital mutilation) discovered in the muslim community in Sydney , and now this.

Muslims already have a bad name here and have been accused of shoving their way into Australia on boats and trying to get sharia law instated (in Sydney, no less) on the grounds of how many muslims there are in one area

Of course that doesn't stop them from trying..

Now words like islamophobia are being thrown around while a 8 year old muslim girl calls for deaths

Harken also to the darling child with the sign stating that anyone who insults mohammad should be beheaded

They most interesting thing about all of this? Combine this together and you have muslims fleeing their countries due to war, war caused by islamic based religious differences, muslims attempting to replace existing laws with mediaeval sharia law in other countries, threats and actual violence in multiple counties for a video made in America, muslims cutting their female children's genitals and one little 8 year old girl calling upon her kind to wage war.
I do really wonder if she will feel the same way when they take her into a back room, hold her down, pull off her panties, and cut off her labia and clitoris. Perhaps this has already been done, and this bile and hatred we see from this 8 year old girl is due to the constant pain and misery she is in and will be in for the rest of her life.

I won't hold someone's beliefs against them. If you tell me that you think that a magical pony that shits rainbows helps you get through life then I will thank you for sharing your unique view of this world with me and get on with my life. Threatening me my family or my country is quite another thing. Actually attacking me, my family or my country just provides physical proof of suspected intentions.

I have to go now, my uncle took a glass bottle to the head recently, thanks to some people who came here from another country claiming that they were being threatened and wanting to get away from the war in their home land. How sad.

Members of parliament where caught looking at Child Pornography. But it's legal under parliamentary privilege.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/child-porn-sites-accessed-at-nsw-parliament-audit-finds/story-fn59niix-1225964504174

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/parliament-porn-users-id-a-secret-20101216-18zqk.html

Can we have a bit of sanity here? The laws are pretty clear that your online activity can only be recorded if the police specifically ask your ISP.

Yes, can we? Why should the police be able to ask the ISP to start recording without a warrant?

Since most Australians are not under investigation by the police, a VPN is hardly a "a necessity".

Without being required warrant, the police can ask the ISP to start recording persons that are not under any investigation. I don't know... say a policeman with a personal vendetta against a neighbour? A corrupt policeman on the payroll on NewsCorp or the like? Yes, I know...once the data is recorded, theoretically it requires a warrant to be legally accessed. But I think the anonymous stunt demonstrated that, once the data is recorded, it can be made accessible by illegal means.

Well, seeing as how some people are trying to classify AGW denial as a mental disorder, perhaps in the future we can ensure the success of our political agendas by selecting for them genetically.

We don't just discard the rule of law because someone on the Internet knows it's "obviously" a sham. Sweden made a legitimate request for extradition. It's been reviewed by one court in Sweden and three courts in the UK. There's nothing wrong with the legal reasoning in any of those decisions. He is accused of committing a violent crime. That's all undisputed.

Almost every reason we're given to abandon the rule of law is found, on examination, to be either false or greatly exaggerated. "It's not a real rape - it's only punishable by fine if true." False (see above). "The victims don't want him extradited." False. One of the accusers is working for the the CIA. As tenuous as Bachman's accusations about Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers in the State Department.

We have trials for a reason. When you have two witnesses who allege facts that amount to sexual assault - one of whom alleges she was asleep and incapable of giving consent - we have enough for police to proceed against the accused. Not necessarily to convict, mind you. Again, that's what trials are for.

when he's in the Ambassador's limo on the way to the airport he's on Ecuadorian soil (Diplomatic plates, cops can't stop it)

Wrong. Diplomatic immunity protects people, not vehicles. Police can still stop a vehicle with diplomatic plates. And the UK most definitely will. Now, the police aren't allowed to search a "diplomatic pouch", but people have tried to smuggle other people in diplomatic pouches before, and it's never worked.

This whole thing is sheer fantasy. All the experts in the field are pretty much unanimous on this one. There've been some wild proposals for how to move him which might pass legal muster, such as declaring him to be Ecuador's UN ambassador, but he'd haveu to fly first to New York City before he could fly home to Ecuador - and you really think that if he believes all the stuff he's been saying about the lengths the US wants to go to get him, that he'd fly straight into New York City, even if he ostensibly had immunity?

It's not going to happen.

On the other hand, the UK has a number of way to force him out of the embassy - everything from legal maneuvers (embassies are not allowed to take part in operations unrelated to their charter) to outright closing the embassy. Or they could just let him rot inside a little embassy building for the rest of his life, or until he gets sick enough that he has to go to the hospital.

If you click through to TFA's TFA, you'll see they properly used the term "raft" unlike MSN. They also mentioned that their vessel plowed right through it, even though "The rock appeared to be sitting above the surface of the waves and when lit up looked like the edge of an ice shelf."

For further terminology bending, the Daily Mail calls it a rock ice-shelf. They also have a pic of it that looks more frothy than island or ice-shelf like.

You can't dump salt in the ocean in large quantities without having an effect. Local salinity levels will rise, possibly enough to affect marine life. There are huge industries that depend on marine life, not to mention conservation for nature's sake.

In Australia a new desalination plant is spending huge amounts of money to attempt to mitigate the effect on marine life including prawns and cuttlefish. There are many areas with existing or proposed desalination plants that have problems with local salinity levels due to the local currents and geography.

Obviously the oceans overall are large enough to handle desalination but there are localized effects.

Here is the cite from "The Australian". http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/judge-wants-data-on-wealth-before-he-rules-on-apple/story-e6frgakx-1226389535095

how long? before Iran retaliates and the whole thing escalates into WW3

You mean like seeking regional hegemony, running terrorist campaigns worldwide, threaten to close the Strait of Hormuz, threaten Europe's energy supplies to freeze people, use suicide boats to attack gulf shipping, arm Hezbollah to attack Israel with and ultimate goal of destroying Israel, attack US troops, send suicide bombers to Europe and America, aid America's enemies, threaten attacks on nearby countries and cities with missiles, kill diplomats, subvert nearby countries, unleash the suicide bomb brigades (serious), and the ninjas (you decide), perhaps adding some WMDs to the attacks?

I doubt that many people will buy it.

Perhaps the real solution is to have the 'AFACT' actually live in Australia for several months... if they survive - http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/travel-old/australian-animals-show-theyre-not-so-cute-and-cuddly-after-all/story-e6frg8ro-1226331660816 - then perhaps they can try carrying on with this crap.

For those who are not aware, AFACT stands for 'Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft' yet most of the companies behind AFACT are American. It would be better named American Federation Against Copyright Theft.

I am not a lawyer, but I am surprised that no one has challenged the name of this business.. for example with the intent to force them to change it from 'Australian' to 'American' as right now they could well be deemed to be passing off in a deliberate attempt to deceive the public - which would be classified as a type of fraud.

A view from a lawyer or legal professional on this would be useful if anyone out there cares to comment..

There are perhaps 1-2% who care enough to decide properly, hence most aussie elections go down to the wire 49-50 between labor and liberal.

You're obviously not a Queenslander - Labor had their asses handed to them on a silver platter just a few weeks ago in a 87-7pc split (the rest were independents). I guess the people had enough of Anna Bligh selling off government assets, sending politicians and their guests to football games at taxpayer expense, and spending $300,000 a day on election advertising (at least that was at party expense). And they're still in the news accused of shredding files on their way out no less.

First off, thanks for your links. It's nice to have informed discussion.

There is a good analysis and discussion of this issue here:
http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

There's a lot of text about dose-dependent, but the problem is clearly in the dosage, as Lustig says in his talk. For example:

"In the single human study I'm aware of that linked fructose to a greater next-day appetite in a subset of the subjects, 30% of total daily energy intake was in the form of free fructose [12]. This amounts to 135 grams, which is the equivalent of 6-7 nondiet soft drinks. Is it really that groundbreaking to think that polishing off a half-dozen soft drinks per day is not a good idea? Demonizing fructose without mentioning the dose-dependent nature of its effects is intellectually dishonest. Like anything else, fructose consumed in gross chronic excess can lead to problems, while moderate amounts are neutral, and in some cases beneficial [13-15]."

My answer to his question is, yes, it is groundbreaking when you compare the mechanisms of fructose to that of alcohol. We know it's not good to binge on alcohol, yet parents think nothing about feeding their kids sodas or fruit juices, sugary cereals, and dessert as part of a day's meal. We've put vending machines that serve sugary junk food in our schools.

All this while what used to be known as adult-onset diabetes is now commonly found in young people. Chalking this up as a lack of exercise and excess calories when their is a clear metabolic mechanism that is dose dependent, just like alcohol, sounds dangerously naive and stubborn.

Prof Jennie Brand-Miller, one of the leading researchers on the relationhips between diet and diabetes has expressed great dismay at Lustig's claims:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/war-over-sweet-nothings/story-e6frg8y6-1226261140744

I can't access it. It looks to be pay-walled, or at least login-walled and bugmenot doesn't work.

As for correlations(which a lot of the anti-sugar and anti-HFCS crowd place emphasis on), here's an interesting paper showing sugar consumption has declined during the past three decades in Australia and yet there has been a similar rise in metabolic problems as seen in the U.S.:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22254107

Interesting. I'll have to look at it in more detail, but one thing that strikes me right off the bat is that they don't talk about the rates of diabetes or metabolic syndrome, only obesity.

This validity of this patent has been widely challenged on the grounds that it covers an obvious invention.

CSIRO's solution may not have been so obvious at the time, quote from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/how-csiros-stars-won-the-wifi-battle/story-e6frgakx-1226316861762

"If the problem was so unimportant, then why did 22 major research agencies around the world, including IBM, shut down their wireless research when the CSIRO published its results?"

Good reform? Doesn't look like it so far. Perhaps it is a case of wait and see.

Taking jobs? No. Breaking the law.
No issues with refugees, serious issues with people whos first act is to break the law. Good introduction right there. Anyone who doesn't want to blend with Australian culture doesn't have to come here.

5%? Fair enough. I think I've just heard of the bad cases then.

Batts waste? I was referring to the government putting up a scheme and not properly managing it. Yes, there is waste when so many houses claimed more than they needed to. For example, reports that they were not measuring houses, and just claiming the maximum.Fraud of several types. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/thousands-of-pink-batts-rorts-exposed/story-fn59niix-1225939385270

Numbers?
http://www.news.com.au/money/money-matters/ato-turns-heat-on-pink-batt-tax-cheaters/story-e6frfmd9-1226103882689

There's a bunch more articles floating around.

I wasn't saying it was the Government's fault for bad trandesmen practices. I'm saying that it was a good idea that they just didn't think through.

Bloody RTD tax :(

Perhaps in future they will have no choice but to run it all past the greens.. only question will be is whether or not Australia will be better or worse off.

Puh: that's nothing. HMS Victory was launched in 1765, and is still in commission. She's even older than the United States!

If the UK doesn't reverse course on defense cuts, there may not be much more than HMS Victory left to protect the British Isles, and the only waves Britsh sailors will be familiar with are these.

Cuts to the Royal Navy
British defence cuts will help make ADF shipshape
Navy chief: Britain cannot keep up its role in Libya air war due to cuts
Big British defense cuts weaken Pentagon's top military partner
Defense Cuts Mean UK Would Lose A New Falklands War, Veteran Claims

Japan has increased the maximum radiation exposure limit for children to 20 times the level set prior to the earthquakes of March 11th.
TEPCO hikes radiation limits as workers' exposure rises
British physicist Wade Allison calls for radical increase in radiation exposure limits

etc. etc.

a few unarmed people

Media reports that there were shotguns in the house, two were sawn-off shotguns, and Kim locked himself in his safe room with one of the sawn-off shotguns. Kim didn't have a gun license, so owning these guns was illegal in NZ. Guns were to protect my family, says Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom

Don't forget one of our state parliaments actively defends Paedophiles in their own house.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/child-porn-sites-accessed-at-nsw-parliament-audit-finds/story-fn59niix-1225964504174

and

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/parliament-porn-users-id-a-secret-20101216-18zqk.html

I'd imagine he's talking about all those convictions against people for "child porn", where the porn in question happened to be a totally fictional illustration.

This isn't just a question of being able to copy other peoples ideas, but rather that media should be distributed freely in any way, shape or form without consequence after 14 years. In this case Gingrich would be able to use the song and there'd be no case for the composers as it was produced in the 80's. At the same time, he could record his own version of it and not have to pay royalties to the composers.

Personally, I don't know where I stand on the issue. I certainly don't want anything like this happening again though.

Sensible approach, requires checks and balances, so big media's sketchy evidence won't pass. It's also makes it too hard for them to squash the little guys like in the states. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/isps-anti-piracy-proposal-rejected-by-entertainment-sector/story-e6frgakx-1226208551936

The boss of qantas recently gave himself a $2M payrise.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/qantas-boss-wins-71pc-pay-hike/story-e6frg8rf-1226131646231

He also announced major job cuts whilst at a management press conference which happened to be at a 5 star hotel. It wasn't good PR.

"Qantas employees learning that they're going to lose their jobs, live from a five-star hotel press conference from a CEO that is out of his depth and out of touch with employees, his company and his country."
http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/qantas-to-announce-drastic-changes/story-e6frfq80-1226115770960

I dont work for qantas, but if I did, I wouldn't be too enthusiastic about the future of the company or my job.

I made no mention of copyright. The issue is enforced filtering and general freedom of speech. Besides, the Australian deal was over pornography. The author of the link was running for some position under the Green Party.

Or cutting off your nose to spite your face is fair play bitch. Samsung makes more money selling iPhones than Samsung phones

Citation? Samsung is making a huge profit right now through their smartphone sales, whilst their profits from most other components is falling. In Q2 of this year, Samsung sold way more phones than Apple. Phone sales, right now, are top dollar for Samsung.

And if Apple's sales of an iPhone5 gets blocked, what do think will happen to Samsung's sales? Do you think they might just happen to rise even further?

So lets see: Samsung still makes more profits from components than from smartphones, they sell more phones than Apple sells smartphones (but less smartphones - oops). And all these facts are in your sources.

Or cutting off your nose to spite your face is fair play bitch. Samsung makes more money selling iPhones than Samsung phones

Citation? Samsung is making a huge profit right now through their smartphone sales, whilst their profits from most other components is falling. In Q2 of this year, Samsung sold way more phones than Apple. Phone sales, right now, are top dollar for Samsung.

And if Apple's sales of an iPhone5 gets blocked, what do think will happen to Samsung's sales? Do you think they might just happen to rise even further?

" ... Conroy's internet filter springs to mind - it never had a hope of getting through Parliament and being enacted ... "
Have I got bad news for you! Although the legislation never made it off the blocks, three of the biggest ISPs (Telstra, Optus & Primus) implemented it anyway.
I'm with Optus, and thankfully, I haven't noticed any major drop in my connection speed ... mostly ... yet.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/fractious-isps-may-fumble-their-chance-on-internet-filter/story-e6frgakx-1225890925760

Apple profit: $5.5 billion
Exxon profit: $US5.5bn in the second quarter.

time I had an inedible airline meal was the last time I flew QANTAS.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/news/qantas-passengers-fed-expired-sangers/story-e6frg8ro-1226086965343

Why does that not surprise me, somehow...