Slashdot Mirror
Smutty E-Mail Legal In Australia
spam-it-to-me-baby writes: "Welcome to Australia. Over the course of a few months, Aussies now can't gamble online locally, you soon may not be able to serve p0rn from a website, we have what could be the world's greatest luddite for an IT minister, but now we find there's nothing wrong legally with spreading a bit of bestiality via e-mail. Is something upside down Down Under?"
Please, for the love of God, tell me that this story marks the end of the complete avalanche of inanity that was the April 1 slashdot experience. PLEASE , I beg you, tell me that it will be at least one more year before we have to live through that again. Is April 1 finally done with? Please? Please?? PLEASE, IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY, TELL ME THAT OUR LONG DARK NIGHT HAS COME TO AND END!
There are a plethora of dodgey/contradictorary laws here (www.dumblaws.com) and this is a fine example of government hipocrasy. The article mentioned online gambling.. but forgot to mention the minister who enacted this owns a pub full of pokies.
At least you septics have a constitution! I think its still against the law to defame the queen, that bitch ;)
-Auslander
Some moderators have a sarcastic sense of humor... but don't worry,we metamoderators will take care of this.
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
he it the nail in the head, a post well balanced and respectful.
/. a wort reading.
This is what makes
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
You should value more your free speech, that's one of the reasons that make people risk their lives to emigrate to USA, along the better quality of life. You're free to choose your morals, but you can't force your morals onto others more than what they can force their own on you. On a side note, I didn't know about the existence of child pornography until the media uproar against it in 1998-1999, but now any uneducated pervert know that in "the internet" they could find child porn. That's backfire, isn't it?
About gambling, mmh... I don't think that banning it is a good idea. Instead of legal casinos, you will end with illegal casinos in the hands of the Mafia, like many other things. Making something illegal will just let it be only in the hands of the illegal, and just by being illegal makes something more attractive to some folks. I know a lot of idiots that smoke pot just because it is illegal, and by doing so they are becoming the greatest rebels on town (at least in their stupid logic -_-)
I find laughable the sexual harassment laws of the USA. I remember a documentary by John Stossel in ABC's 20/20 about it, and how you must sign special contracts in the case you wanted to date a coworker, and how the harassment comes from the impression in the demandant, not by the intention of the demanded. With this kind of barriers to start a meaningful relationship (remember that a lot of couples meet in the workplace). I doubt that should come as a surprise the high popularity of pornography; maybe Americans need a study about the (just a theory, ok?) correlation between pornography's consume and strong sexual harassment laws.
And you shouldn't forget that jails work thanks to taxpayers, do you want to pay a pervert's roof and food?
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
How this ever got from bestiality to insurance no one will ever know... but I doubt very much anyone buying insurance is betting on getting sick and requireing expensive care. I mean, such things are very easily arranged, and a bet of this nature would be trivial to win. If you ever bought insurance you'd know that you're betting on _not_ getting sick, and buy the thing _in case_ you do, not _hoping_ to; it's not like it's all fun and games laying in a hospital bed with all your bones broken and tunes sticking out every which way, insurance funded or not.
"Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
Uh, ok, so you sent this message to the entire company... and what did you expect? The least of the problems here is that not everyone shares your sense of humour, and some people will find it deeply offensive (aren't all jokes made at _someone's_ expense?). The issue here is one of tact... you don't just fire off a message to everyone you know and don't know written in the same tome you'd use with a close friend. As much as you may hate protocol and etiquette it is quite required to effectively communicate with other people.
"Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
And what the hell is the US's obsession with calling us "down under"?!
You'll turn the world upside down if you call US down under!
No doubt officials in Sacramento will be pleased to let the federal government take the fall for what California did to itself.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
I tried living in other places (various parts of USA and Europe)... no where is any better ;).
the entire world is fucked
Commodore 64, Loading up the dance floor!
I don't know about you, but some amusing images about what happens inside government facilities are running through my head...
- Chuq
Or perhaps they coherently present a story, with good use of hyperlinks to referenced material, and anyone semi-intelligent reading the words instead of just trying to click randomly on links can easily see that the link to bestiality is indeed the main one of the story.
And it's rare that I'll get to say that on
~Cederic
Get a clue. Timothy (or, more accurately, spam-it-to-me-baby) is merely pointing out some factual information about Australian laws relating to the Internet.
It's not their fault that your country (which you love so much) has such a screwed set of laws. Face it, your government is rapidly becoming the laughing stock of the internet, and on-line ridicule like this can only help you in reversing such silly laws.
~Cederic
Sorry Tim, but that's bullshit.
Any company/government agency that has an adequate Terms of Use statement regarding the use of their email system is covered.
Any company/government agency that does not is in trouble, as they cannot take actions to prevent its misuse and potentially open themselves up to hefty sexual harrassment lawsuits.
Further, as usual the predominantly US based slashdot crowd are quick to hold Australia and Australians up as the culprit for all things evil in IT related matters.
Take a look in your own backyard... DCMA, RIAA, MPAA, software patents are all US creations.
Its the governments that are fucked, not the people, on both sides of the pond.
'sapientia potestas est'
Actually that's Cockney Rhyming Slang.., i.e. from south London. You Aussies didn't invent shit. ;)
--
Delphis
Delphis
Nothing.
The net is as free (as in speech) as it was 5 years ago. None of these laws have made any difference. Those that actually get off the drawing board go through so many committees and are so ludicrous they are easily circumvented.
Look at the Australian Internet censorship laws - in the first six months since they came into effect, how much porn has the government erradicated? All of it? Half? 1%? No, just 93 web pages! That's like shooting a hundred cows in England and declaring Foot and Mouth disease cured.
The sad thing is that I'm so used to Australia banning internet stuff that it took me a while to realize that heading said legal instead of illegal. The first few times I read it, I thought I SAW illegal.
It's sad that a country could build up a track record that strong.
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
What a pointless article to discuss at Slashdot. Did someone in editorial think this was an April Fools joke?
States can ignore Federal laws (by passing their own variants)
You are incorrect. According to the Constitution of Australia, if a State has a law that is in conflict with a Federal law, the Federal law overrides the State law. If you're Australian, remember the recent mandatory sentencing debate? There are also some areas where states are constitutionally prohibited from passing laws. States cannot have their own armed forces, for example.
--
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
... precisely the same way that the US states are subserviant to the federal government. Each Australian State is effectively a sovereign entity (think of it as economic block) while the federal system tries to centralise certain activities (cough*taxes*cough). This creates some rather interesting political dynamics (e.g. vertical fiscal imbalances) in that States can ignore Federal laws (by passing their own variants) or create enough hue and cry that the federal government ends up back-pedelling. The good point is that there's diversity in the system, if you don't like laws in one state you can fairly easily relocate to another, or even Christmas Island which is a separate territory (which has fewer taxes). The downer is that some shanghinans get perpetuated, for example one premier (equivalent of US State Governor) in Queensland went straight to the Queen when trying the national hobby of rocking the boat.
What this means is that usually the government is too busy trying to sort out the mess in its own backyard to really bother the people that much (except for the recent introduction of GST which they've botched badly) so you can get away with some odd things. I believe someone mentioned that one of the world's biggest purchasers of SGI gear running a porn site is in Queensland which coincidenctally has one of the country's most conservative voters. Given the legal and economic stability and access to technology (some nice software hot spots around) it is not actually not a bad place to do IT work provided you focus on the export market and ignore the silly buggers down in the capital city.
LL
loose another IT dude that can bring the country another couple of hundred grand a year You wish....
I just searched the Vic govt web site. Victorian Labor Senator Jacinta Collins does not exist.
hehe
Ms Jacinta Marie Allan is the only Jacinta.
If Beastialty (or depictions thereof) are not illegal in a particular locale then passing it around is not. HOWEVER, if it is against the stated Terms of Use of the particular system it is passed on then administrative action would be neccessary, according to whatever diciplinary provisions that are made.
With all the latest hoopla about AU, it seems that the transition from Penal Colony to Modern Utopia is almost complete
Somebody's gotta go back and get us a shitload of dimes.
Trying to portay Australia as the home of bestiality.
Never believe in anything until it has been officially denied. -Otto von Bismarck
Government (and Utility, but this may change soon in California) workers are _very_ hard to fire. They basically have strict due process (called "Civil Service") protections against unfavorable personnel actions (like, i.e., firing). It's the same in most first-world countries, including the UK, the EU, the US, Canada, Australia, NZ, Japan, etc.
All they have to do is show up for their shift (not discernably drunk or stoned), stay awake (mostly) for eight hours, and they're guaranteed to keep their jobs, pretty much.
In the US, somewhere around 40% of employees work for Local, State, or Federal governments. Scary, isn't it? Most of them vote, too, which is one reason it's so hard to pass meaningful tax reductions. In the UK, EU, etc., the percentage is probably even higher. Of course the idiot kept his job. H*ll, he'll probably get a raise this year! You have to be around "civil servants" for a while to figure out that they aren't motivated by the same incentives that lead most enterprise employees to be useful, productive, effective, and efficient. Public workers usually evince none of these characteristics. (But exceptions do exist.) For the most part though, "civil service" rules need changing.
Told me I was the only one!
*sob, sniffle*
Rick B.
Ok, so someone was using work computers to send personal email.... If there were rules about not sending personal email, you give the person a warning and move on. What was the big deal?
Kellogs Corn Flakes
Maybe replace with "The Warner Brother's Film Studio"....
Expensive equiptment, waste, corporate welfare.
Become a FSF associate member before the low #s are used
"In the US, somewhere around 40% of employees work for Local, State, or Federal governments."
This is obviously bogus. Think about your friends - do anywhere near 40% of them work for the gov't? Do even 10%? No. This wasn't even true during the world wars - there had to be many people producing war materials for each person on the front (and war materials were produced largely by private companies). Think before you post.
Become a FSF associate member before the low #s are used
So does that mean that all the Austrilan porn sites will now have to switch their servers from http to POP3?
Fuck I hate you Tim. Why dont you think before you post this shit? Beastiality ok in Australia? You're a prick.. this is my country you're talking about. Someone finally stands up and says people have a right to say whatever they want to each other whether it be over government computers or not and you post it as being backward. Grow up.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Think about your friends - do anywhere near 40% of them work for the gov't? Do even 10%?
Well if you count the military and govt. contract work, yes. Just because you might not think you know anyone who fits that description doesn't mean it isn't accurate. I live in the middle of one of the largest military areas in the nation and I'd say a lot more than 40% of the folks I know are paid by the govt. one way or another.
"Smear'd with gumms of glutenous heat, I touch..." - Comus, John Milton
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
"Unfortunately Australia seems intent on preserving it's 1930s economy for the forseeable future."
Yep, this country needs a Sir Donald for the 00's. Sport seems the only thing the Aussies have going for them ATM.
OK, Oz may be weird, but God bless our tribunals and courts for protecting us from the excesses of our legislatures!
Don't move, stay and help vote the fscker out!
...goatse.cx should put up a mail server.
And exactly what government facilities were the woman and her german shepherd using?
duck!
(Yes, I read the story; just poking fun.)
The Web is like Usenet, but
the elephants are untrained.
I'm an Australian and have known about this for about a week now. This is not going to stop Australians from gambling, only they're going to gamble on sites overseas. The wierd thing is, Australian gambling sites may allow only overseas gamblers to gamble and not Australians. Where's the logic in that? This was the exact point made by one of the owners of an Australian gambling site. He also said that it''s not going to make much difference because about 90% of his revenue comes from outside Australia. I'm glad theregister said what they said.
Are we still in April Fools day mode? I mean, looking at the date evidently isn't enough, based on earlier stories today...
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
(What? Those are the citizens?)
--
--
I like to watch.
Oddly (or not) enough, there's already a bestiality-themed parody of "Tie me kangaroo down, sport", entitled "Bestiality's Best (Fuck a Wallaby)". Best sung on your way to a drunken a stupor ... the chorus refering to the toad always cracked me up for some reason :)
--
The real Captain Avatar is a fictional character, so I suppose he doesn't mind if I impersonate him.
Blame the original opponents, especially if what has happened is exactly what was predicted by said opponents
Ignore it (or many aspects of it) due to both ego and willful ignorance of reality
Pile even more fluff on top of the existing law/regulation in attempt to 'put out fires with fuel'
Act suprised that this happened, and forms a multimillion dollar 'Task Force' to look into the matter, usually ending with results that resemble the other results listed above
I for one, think I am able to protect myself and my family from what I consider not appropriate. If my government wants to assist me, then they should provide access to education (the enemy of ignorance and bigotry) and access (not to be confused with forcing companies to provide said service) to methods/products to perform said protection... but then again, that is what the founding fathers of the United States would want. And through misquoting and misrepresentation and hidden agendas of hate and personal vendetas, this country is NOT very free anymore. It would be solved however, if everyone would stop with the feuding behavior and look at the common denominators of problems, not the superficial instances of it, and then hypocritically attacking only those things that it is trendy to attack.
I seek not only to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, I seek the things they sought.
Seems like when socialism is brought up, people get very nasty. The point is, regardless of what you call it, it is socialism. Just because you switch some special interest group with a corporation doesn't really matter as far as results go. When government has the power to dictate to teh people how to live, what to like, what to dislike, how to think, who they should hire, etc... that is socialism and history has shown it does more harm than good.
The AC that said that it is conservatism and the line about GWB is not actually correct. First (and this is another example of fact overrulling theory), it should be noted that in the US, the majority of censoring/filtering and things like the ratings system for various forms of entertainment have been children of Democrats and their spouses. Just look at what the Clinton administration handed down, then look at what he signed, then look at bills author's or at the committe sponsors. What you find is a paper trail of dem's restricting your rights. If you just point at Republican's and especially if you take blame from the real culprits and put it on the Republicans to make it easier for you, you are dooming yourself.
I for one don't trust either of them and NEVER have. But I do observe reality and notice the dem's stripping away all my rights at a much higer rate than the republicans have. Hopefully GWB won't follow the dem's lead in that, but who knows.
Again, like you said... labels seem to be very misleading... just like political parties. I see Democrats who sell out land to be destroyed by developers, then not only looking the other way, but helping them (and themselves) to the profits it generates. Democrats that claim to be 'for the people' but only those people that will give them power. Democrats that spread lies and deceit instead of educating the public with facts. Then I see the army of supporters that not only defend them, but actually place blame on the Republican's. Just call it like it is, don't let the media or little angry men tell you how and what to think.
To the AC, I believe you need to get your facts straight on what the Republicans and Democrats have really been doing. If you choose to label it as conservatism, yet ignore the socialism inherent in it, that is your right. Whatever you choose to call it, it is control. If you excuse one sort of control because it doesn't 'effect' you yet, or because it only effects those whom you do not LIKE or AGREE with,then you are no different then the evil that you rage against. Put down the picket sign, and grap your phone or computer. Call the idiots that put this into place (in this case if you are an Australian) and make a difference. Don't rally to replace one evil with an even more intrusive and historically proven inneffective one.
I seek not only to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, I seek the things they sought.
The Kyoto protocol is flawed and is designed to punish succesful countries
Excuse me if I'm wrong, but if a group of countries with less than 30% of the world's population use 90% of the world's resources (which are depleting at a rapid rate), then don't they deserve to be "punished" (where being punished is actually just being told to decrease their resource use)?
According to conservative estimates, we have thirty years to halve the world's resource use, otherwise we will descend into an ecological nightmare.
Basing you pollution credits on population is fundamentally flawed
This is incorrect, basing pollution credits on GNP is the only way to do it. The "North" (First World countries) was the one pushing for these measures, and in order to convince the reluctant "South" (developing nations) that the measures are reasonable, they will have to live with far smaller per-capita resource consumption. Could you imagine convincing a country like India that despite its' massive population, it has to live with a pollution quota smaller than that of the US because it has a low GNP? This would make industrial development impossible (because of the low pollution quota), and would result in India slipping even further behind the nations of the "North".
As an example of the vast difference between resource consumption in the "North" and "South", the resource consumption of an average German is ten times that of an average Argentinean. Basing the pollution quotas on population will cause the wasteful nations of the "North" to invest in resource-efficient solutions, and it may be possible to avoid an environmental disaster.
If you think that resource-efficiency on this scale isn't possible, I suggest you read "Factor Four", a report by the Club of Rome, it clearly demonstrates that fourfold increases in resource productivity are both possible and profitable.
Also, just to clear up a final point, you talk about socialist third world countries. This is a common mistake: First World countries are allied with the North-America/Europe/Japan bloc, Second World countries are those allied with the ever-shrinking Communist bloc, and Third world countries are those that are neutral. Thus, you should have said socialist second world countries.
Sorry this is getting off-topic, but I wanted to point out the flaws in the above post.
When I read stupid comments like these from Americans, I wonder if a lot of schizophrenia genes got spread about as a result of the country being founded by religious freaks.
* Australian voter turnout is 99.8%, compare that to the USA.
* Student politics is a vibrant, and crucial area of studies, much more so than in the US.
* Most Australians are overworked, the burn-out rate (and suicide rate) is the highest in the world.
So, I can't see how your comment about Australians being lazy is justified.
The preferencial voting system facilitates (read: requires) a waste of time - used either negotiating or debating (e.g. in the media) the trade-off's of doing this or that "preference" deal with another political party...
The fact that the gov't can decide -when- to hold their next election (i.e. rather than "every 2 (or 4) years") makes similar time-/space-demands on medium.
RESULT: Less time to cover the implications of actual decisions on political issues.
People expend their energies discussing non-content issues like preferential voting alternative and/or when the next election should be held.
When I read about Australian gov't decisions, I wonder if a lot of schizophrenia genes got spread about as a result of being a former prison colony.
Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
See my user info for links.
And then make mad, passionate love to it...
InstaPundit! Ahead of the Curve Since 30 Minutes Ago
The Australian Democrats, who currently have the balance of power in the Senate, have said that they're not going to support this law. Also, the Labor Party has said that they don't want to support this law, because the Liberal Party thought of it. Therefore, we shouldn't really worry too much.
Jacinta Collins is noisy enough that you would have heard of her if you ever read a newspaper.
How about you look at the federal government site?
Sure the article described her as "Victorian Labor Senator Jacinta Collins", which is a little ambiguous. In this instance, they meant "Senator for Victoria", not "Member of the Legislative Assembly in Victoria" nor even "Labor Senator during Queen Victoria's reign".
This is obviously bogus. Think about your friends - do anywhere near 40% of them work for the gov't? Do even 10%? No. This wasn't even true during the world wars - there had to be many people producing war materials for each person on the front (and war materials were produced largely by private companies). Think before you post.
There is a very simple explanation for that. Government employees don't have friends. They probably aren't even born from natural human parents. Didn't I read a slashdot story about the government fabricating them to reduce training costs?
"The worker who sent out the e-mail, a middle manager, has had his salary docked"
Excuse me? This person still works for the Austrailian government?
There is something VERY wrong with this picture.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
Hell yeah. I think alot of us in Aust don't really understand the implications of these laws, and kinda don't care. It's sad. BUT, in the scheme of things, this is part of a wider scenario where the Govt is trying to push some wierd 1950's conservative happyland agenda on a modern forward thinking nation. The liberal conservative party is definately heading for a poll. The exit's and straw polls are polling the libs reeeal bad. Labor in WA has been full on kicking ass now there in and fixing all sorts of conservative rubish. Let's take that national.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Ok it's cheap to do a word substitution gag when the grammar of the original post is funny enough, but .....
So the gov tries to limit rights, so what - i can't see how that is a bad thing in a country with far to much rights (and if you don't believe aust has to much rights their is something wrong with you). Sure, maybe people can just go to overseas sites but one liberty i would like to take is that some won't. And even if only 1 person does not gain freedom than cannot afford than that is a victory. An addicted rights-activist with access to an oline site is quite scary. Self regulation does not work, slashdot is not very good at turning people away. Perhaps if various austyralian state goverments with an eye on easy living had not allowed such an explosion of rights in the last 10 years (here in queensland it is rediculess how much in the last 10 years) than it would not be such a problem. [snip blah blah]
ergo: get a life.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
I've never understood your problem with taxation.
You're forgetting that you also get something like good universal health care and public transportation for your tax money -- even to those who otherwise couldn't afford it (and unlike you Ayn Rand fanatics would like to believe not all of them are simply "lazy").
I had a tumour surgically removed from my stomach at a university hospital. I was admitted four days after I was diagnosed, had a smooth operation and got excellent care for two weeks at the ward. The immediate cost? $200. At a private clinic this would have cost me at least $5000, which I could not have afforded at this stage of my life (I've spent all my personal budget surplus on computers and stocks).
"Get an insurance. It's unfair that I have to pay for someone else's operation", you say? The problem with the health insurance is that it can severely restrict the way the doctors can treat you. It also promotes social inequality as only the rich can get proper treatment.
In the finaly analysis, yes I feel the 28% income tax is worth it. That way we get good services for everybody, which in itself makes me feel good.
Knowing how most politicians are, I enjoyed myself by going to his website and submitting the following email. Let's see how sharp he is and how many times he has to re-read it before he catches on. :)
"Just wanted to congratulate you on the award that you received. I feel that no person deserves it more than you do. The award I am referencing is here at http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/17941.html
You are absolutely the most qualified person to receive this achievement and you can be sure that I will gladly nominate you for it next year and in the following years to come, which should be as long as you hold office. Your achievements are on a par with Richard Nixon, Theodore Bundy, George W. Bush, and others. You can rest assured that you are in a singular group of individuals."
I'm good with numbers -
Your ignorance of Australian culture is impressive...
Ah, yes, Melbourne, one of the world's great cities. The restaurants on Lygon Street are fantastic. The Italian food is great, but don't forget the culinary contributions of the Thais, Indonesians, Malaysians, Turks, Indians, Greeks, and dare I say, Brits.
Australian and American cultures are similiar in many respects. They both honor self-reliance. They both have great literary traditions. However, the cultures differ in (at least) two fundamental ways. Australians are not as obsessed with money. Success is recognized in many forms. For example, the Wallabies is the Australian national rugy union team (rugby union as opposed to rugby league). This is a semi-pro team that boasts long, proud careers and garners international acclaim. Secondly, Australians are more inclusive and honor contributions to the community. A national motto is, "Everyone gets a fair go." Fred Hallows was a great Australian.
Notably, Australians have higher patronage rates of libraries, gallaries, museums, and stage productions. Here are some other bits and pieces:
The list goes on and on. I suggest you're quite mistaken about the nature of Australian culture.
Oh yes, let's not forget that it was the Australian culture that gave us the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, arguably one of most memorable games of the modern Olympic movement.
Is it just me or are other Australians embarrassed by our government. I am embarrassed just on IT issues let alone other issues (SORRY see its not that hard). Remember fellow Aussies, it is an election year this year so lets stop being embarrassed and stick it to Little Johnny in te Polls!!!
-- Karma Karma Karma Karma, Karma Chameleon - Boy George
So a person gets his salary docked for sending a legal e-mail depicting a women with a german shephard using government facilities. Does something about this not seem right to other people? I have two questions:
1) If distributing porn via a web server is illegal in Australia, how come this isn't?
2) Why does this matter?
mmm...physics...
Ok, this question has been raised before.. but basically never answered..
Im an Aussie, and im getting sick and tired of these stupid laws that Alston keeps passing to do with the net, and how he never helps internet business...
So... as soon as I get my uni degree, im outa here.. Where can I move? Somewhere were the government is reltivly intelligent, but not broke or curropt. Somewhere where its not illigal to play my DVD's or backup my cd's to mp3's. Somewhere that embraces IT, and has alot of jobs avaialable..
Where can I live? I'd like to think it was Australia.. but unless they fix up these stupid laws, not a chance!!
stuff
>Is something upside down Down Under?
> Yes, it is called "SOCIALISM", an
No, No, No - The socialists lost.
The ruling party is called "Liberal" the same way that East Germany was called a "Democratic Republic" when it wasn't.
The founder of the party, Sir Robert Menzies (alias Pig-Iron Bob, for selling iron to Japan during the pre-WW2 invasion of Asia) announced in the foundation speech that the profit motive is the highest form of human expression (or similar words). Think of the Republican party, but with a very small membership.
>Australians learn to get off their bums and get involved, like Americans do
I didn't know that all adult US citizens voted!
Personally I think that it is the duty of all citizens in a democracy to "get off their bums" and vote - and that is something that is enforced in Australia.
It's a shame about those bestiality pictures though. I not very familiar with Australian law, but they must not have very strong protections against sexual harrassment.
... Oh shit! Thinking about it you might be right!
I know this is a bit late but what the hell do bestiality pictures have to do with sexual harrassment?
Any workplace where employees send each other smut is a hostile workplace to women, and the people responsible ought to be sued, if not prosecuted and jailed.
Whoah! Easy tiger! So obviously porn creates the false idea that women are to be used for sex?
Nah! I still disagree because of a couple of points... 1. You're referring to smut in general and you've got to wonder what you think of women if you think that sex with an animal has anything to do with women.
2. Assuming you were referring to pictures of women - how on earth does a picture of a naked woman make a man hostile to women? You might be extraordinarily beautiful but I'm still going to obey you if you're my boss or order you if I'm your boss. If a man can't handle that then it's his misconception of women and circulating porn isn't going to create that misconception in the same way that circulating pictures of ugly women dressed in suits isn't going to destroy that mis-conception. In the end it's a picture and people who can't handle that (ie you) should get a grip on reality, close their eyes and listen to someone speak for a bit.
3. Men cannot deny their sex drive. It's like a womans period or a humans urge to protect the young. While we're jailing all the men for being natural why don't we just jail all the women as well? I'm sure that'll solve everything!
God: You've been accused!
Man: Off what?
God: Looking at naked women!
Man: Well maybe you shouldn't have required us to reproduce.
God: Well Terri accused you! It wasn't me!
Bah! What am I wasting my time for?
Pinky: What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?
Pinky: "What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?"
Brain: "I would tell you Pinky but this 120 char limi
Actually, thats New Zealand you are thinking of...
I lost me sig.
So he was a little stupid, and he shouldn't have done that because of his office as a government censor.
I cannot see why this is interesting news. I don't see either how it merits the headline. The headline might just as well read the other way "Poor internet worker gets his salary docked because of writing email. What happens to our rights of free expression ?".
And anyway, did you know that the dirty email contained de-css source in the lower bits ? ;-)
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
Just more proof that government has no idea what government is doing. While I personally disapprove of porn, ESPECIALLY that involving animals (other than humans) and humans, I do think it is wrong for Government to tell us that if we want to, we cannot watch it.
I won't ever be watching porn. I find it degrading to the human race, but I don't think government has the right to tell us that we cannot, let alone a government which has no idea what it is doing.
-=Lothsahn=-
I suppose I am.
-=Lothsahn=-
excerpts: "This comes close behind a plan to make email forwarding illegal. Oh, and not forgetting the law which holds people legally responsible for anything they post on the Internet which is not suitable for children to view (that decision being made by the police). "
There's always sufficient, but not always at the right place nor for the right folks.
Thanks for bringing this point of view which I totally share. Reading the Slashdot posts sometimes makes me believe I'm a total alien but now I feel a little better.
A little similar story hapened to me 4 years ago. My car got bumped into anonymously on the company's parking. I was not really concerned about my car, as they say shit happens and this is why accidents happen, but I was quite unhappy about the fact that it was anonymous and I was sure that it was someone at work. So I sent an email to everybody in the company (40 people roughly) to explain my grief and in the end, I said as a joke "It can only be a woman can't it :))" with a smiley after to show that I was only joking. God!! If I was living 2000 years ago, these people would have stoned me to death. Had it happened in America, I would have been sued! The fact is that people who know me knew I was joking and that I am no sexist at all! However, people who don't know me thought I was a real bastard. The boss of the company told me that I could have been fired and sued for that! So I have some piece of advice, do not send 2nd degree material via email to people who do not know you well. ASCII text is not an efficient means to communicate politically incorrect things and should never be mixed with a joke at the pub.
Perhaps this employee wanted to do harm and knew he could shock people by sending his stuff. In such case, he should be punished. If he thought people would think it is funny, then it is utterly different and he should only be warned but by no means should his salary be docked!
Or maybe, I'm an alien after all! :)
É que os desafinados também têm um coração
Agreed. But at the time, it was my first job and I was young and naive and I really thought that everybody would recognize that it was 2nd degree humour. Now, I know that it's a completely wrong assumption (learned it the hard way). And by the way, it is not a matter of how many people you send your mail to but who you send it to: one can laugh about everything, but not with everyone. Not easy to learn to be politically correct.
É que os desafinados também têm um coração
I do however wish that Mr Alston hire someone with a brain before making statements that lead to unenforcable laws. Sh*t even a Marketing drone could tell you some of these laws sound implausible (ok ..maybe not a marketing drone). Australia needs more support for IT companies to whaul themselves out of the crap they have fallen into, not more stupid laws for people to laugh at.
--
Jon - TheSpork
IIRC, this isn't quite true. The Labor (left-wing) party will probably vote as a bloc against the bill, true. The sting in the tail comes from the Democrats (centrist) and other party-goers...
At least one Democrat (whose name escapes me - can anyone clear this up?) has said he'll support the bill, on the grounds that Internet gambling is draining money from the pockets of middle- and lower-class Australia and must be stopped. (I'm not going to *touch* the reasoning behind this.) Bob Brown (Australian Greens: he's IIRC pretty conservative on social issues) may well support the legislation as well. Len Harris (One Nation, hysterically right-wing) I don't know about.
Let's take a worst-case scenario (from our POV). All of the minority parties vote for the bill, and that unknown Democrat breaks party lines to vote for the bill.
Doing the math (simple majority, 76 senators)...
39 votes are needed to pass the bill.
Liberal(31), National(3), CLP(1) coalition: 35 senators
Bob Brown (Greens): 1
Len Harris (PHON): 1
Brian Harradine (Ind.): 1
Unknown Democrat: 1
That's 39 votes in the Senate. The bill passes into law.
I repeat, I don't know if this is anywhere near fact - but it's a pretty scary theory.
Joshua Giersch
In my e-mail, it's not "whom", it's "hoo".
I don't care where you're from; if your not embarrassed by your government, you don't have a clue
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
As far as I can tell, the Oz legislature keeps proposing these inane things, they draw all sorts of criticism, then mostly they die in committee. But the idiot notions die very quietly, rather than embarrass the idiot who proposed them. By contrast, in the USA they append stuff like this to an unrelated bill at the end of the session, it gets passed by Senators and Congressmen who haven't even read it, and then six months later there's a public stink about it -- if we're lucky. Seems like the Ozzies might have it over us; even if their legislature often sounds like one of Molly Ivins commentaries on the (incredibly stupid, according to her anyway) Texas legislature, at least the Ozzies get a chance to comment on the BS before it gets voted on...
(1) Gambling debts are in no way legally enforceable. (2) Enforce the extortion laws, so they don't do very well at collecting illegally.
Minister is a _politician_ not civil servant...
Read something about history and politics before sending stupid posts...
Besides using it for a bad smelling doormat.
Sex is heriditary, if your parents didn't have it chances are good you won't either.
Salieri writes, "Ever notice how it's sometimes very difficult to tell which is the real or relevant link in the article write-up? Perhaps the editors can distinguish where the main attraction is." He then clicks preview to make sure the links work.
--------------------------------
The ultimate irony with this whole thing is that the utterly clueless government that is championing these Anti-Net-Gambling laws presides over a country with the most pokies (poker machines) per capita in the world!!
You go into a pub around here to get a beer and you're tripping over pokie machines trying to find the counter.
Unfortunately Australia seems intent on preserving it's 1930s economy for the forseeable future. Since I'm not a farmer or a miner, I'm out of here. Anybody sponsoring for H1B's ?
If those people want to have some fun during there work, let them. As if nobody outside the public sector ever sends gross mail to his co-workers to have a laugh. You act like a hypocrite when you want to deny such a thing to public workers (and it's even more hypocritical to act as if it were illegal).
I suspect you're just pissed off about the apperantly unjust gambling laws. Too bad you react on that by calling something which is really harmless illegal. People like you are very dangerous, because if you're upset about something (in this case the gambling laws) you'll mark up anything you don't like as illegal. History has shown that this is not a good way of thinking.
In any workplace people should be allowed to mail stuff to each other, as long as it doesn't eat up too much work time. Public workers are human too, and some of them actually like to mail a joke or a funny picture to a co-worker every once and a while. This even saves time because you can relax a couple of minutes when you have some humor when working, after which you are more productive. If you expect people to work 8 hour (with lunch/coffee break) and expect them to pay full attention/concentration this full period without a minute of fun every once and a while, you start talking about slavery.
This tax paying thing is just like the typical hypocrite American reaction: we pay taxes and they shouldn't waste it. This is true in essence, but it doesn't mean you can deny a public worker any form of humor. Most programmers like funny stuff in the mail every once in a while, and so do government workers.
This is my first point. My second point is that the fact that bestiality is mentioned, as if this makes it worse. Also starts to look like the typical Americal reaction: violence is no problem, anything that has to do with sex is wrong/illegal/filthy/etc..
The person who told this story can A. not see that public workers are human too and B. doesn't see difference between bestiality and really illegal stuff. Therefore I (and any sane person) cannot take him seriously. It's just so clearly a populistic viewpoint ("look: we cannot do this and they can do this other thing which I personally find vulgar and therefore it must be made punishable to do it"). Sad, really.
I can see why they would be so concerned with bestiality issues.
-Keslin, the naked nerd girl
-Keslin, the naked nerd girl
Get a wobbly bit of cardboard out and sing.... Tie me Kangaroo down sport Tie me Kangaroo down.....
----------------------------------------------
The best lack all conviction
While the worst are full of passionate intensity
{YEATS}
And why on earth is this "3, Funny"??
I think it is wonderful that the Australians are fighting to protect their children from pornography. I can't believe how many people here are actually defending defending that filth. I wish we could pass similar laws here in the states, but free speech zealots have made that next to impossible. They always think about their rights, but never think about the rights of parents who just want to raise their sons and daughters with good clean morals.
I also think outlawing gambling is a wonderful idea. I know many people regard this as an unnecessary intrusion of the the government into people's lives, but let's face it: sometimes the government does know best. Gambling serves no purpose except to part deluded people from their money. It ought to be banned both on- and offline.
It's a shame about those bestiality pictures though. I not very familiar with Australian law, but they must not have very strong protections against sexual harrassment. Any workplace where employees send each other smut is a hostile workplace to women, and the people responsible ought to be sued, if not prosecuted and jailed.
Phew!! No organized crime in Vegas. (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03, @01:26AM EDT (#189)
Good point. Thank God there's legalized gambling in Las Vegas. Othewise there might be mob influence!!
Australia has culture?
Last time I looked, Australia has only slightly more culture than the USA, and that's pretty pitiful.
I suppose it's some consolation that in Australia (or at least Melbourne) you can get good Italian food...
So the gov tries to limit gambling, so what - i can't see how that is a bad thing in a country with far to much gambling (and if you don't believe aust has to much gambling their is something wrong with you). Sure, maybe people can just go to overseas sites but one gamble i would like to take is that some won't. And even if only 1 person does not loose money than cannot afford than that is a victory. An addicted gambler with access to an oline site is quite scary. Self regulation does not work, casinos are not very good at turning people away. Perhaps if various austyralian state goverments with an eye on easy money had not allowed such an explosion of gambling in the last 10 years (here in queensland it is rediculess how much in the last 10 years) than it would not be such a problem. As to sensorship - lots of people say let people do what they won't, except for child porn. The only diff between the gov and those people is that the line in the sand is different. The real hipporcrites are those who say ban one thing but everybody should be able to do anything else they want because thats "there right" online. Then to backup there comments they take specific bits of law or outcomes under the belief that it is even remotely possible to be 100% consistent with so mnany laws and regulations that a country needs. Like getting 1000 bits of data and neglecting the 995 bits that don't show what you want to say.
I would like to point out that the article in The Age "Obscene e-mail ruled legal", posted on this website as "spreading a bit of bestiality via e-mail", was incorrect. A letter has been forwarded to The Age as follows: "Dear Editor, I wish to point out an inaccuracy in the report published in 'The Age' on 2 April 2001 at page 7 under the heading 'Obscene e-mail ruled legal'. The investigation in fact did not conclude that an employee of the Office of the Employment Advocate sent to other employees material of the nature referred to in that article. The advice from the departmental investigator quoted in the article, to the effect that none of the material examined in the course of the investigation "was of a nature that could be considered criminal" was entirely correct. An enquiry from your reporter to this office or to the departmental investigator who wrote that advice, would have prevented the publication of these inaccuracies. In the circumstances I request that you retract these inaccurate statements." David Rushton Senior Legal Manager, Office of the Employment Advocate