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Australian Government Censorship 'Worse Than Iran'

An anonymous reader writes "The Australian Government's plan to Censor the Internet is producing problems for ISPs, with filters causing speeds to drop by up to 86% and falsely blocking 10% of safe sites. The Government Minister in charge of the censorship plan, Conservative Stephen Conroy, has been accused of bullying ISP employees critical of his plan: 'If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd Labor Government is going to disagree.'" Read on for more, including an interesting approach to demonstrating the inevitable collision of automated censorship with common sense. The same reader continues: "Conroy's plan involves censoring at the ISP level to product 'Child-safe' Internet feeds. Initially he said that adults would be able to opt out. He since reversed that position, saying instead they can only go onto an 'Adult-safe' feed censoring 'illegal material', which another senator warned could include 'euthanasia material, politically related material, material about anorexia.' Colin Jacobs of Electronic Frontiers Australia said 'I'm not exaggerating when I say that this model involves more technical interference in the internet infrastructure [note: forum membership required] than what is attempted in Iran, one of the most repressive and regressive censorship regimes in the world.'"

Another anonymous reader suggests this answer to the proposed clone of China's great firewall: "Some of the tested systems use md5 hashes to find illegal content. As proof of concept, how long will it take Slashdot users to create an image with the md5 hash of 5ff742a58529efa02ba00ec8fa2e89bf? This md5 was picked because it is the hash of the current picture of the Prime Minister on his party's web site. A couple of points: The created image should be a jpg. It must be safe for work. It needs the correct MD5. It shouldn't break modern browsers. Its copyright should be free." Any takers?

6 of 516 comments (clear)

  1. the truth is out there! +5 informative!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I submit David Hasselhoff is the AntiChrist

    And I have the proof

    How can one explain the phenomenal global success of one of this country's least talented individuals? There are only three ways.

    * Mr. Hasselhoff actually is talented, but this goes unnoticed in his own country.

    * Mr. Hasselhoff has sold his soul to Satan in return for global success.

    * David Hasselhoff is the AntiChrist.

    I vote for the latter -- and perhaps, after seeing the facts involved, the rest of the world will agree.

    The Facts First, the obvious. Add a little beard and a couple of horns -- David Hasselhoff looks like the Devil, doesn't he? And the letters in his name can be rearranged to spell
    fad of devil's hash.

    What does this mean? Well, Baywatch is David's fad. David is the devil. The Hash is what makes Knight Rider popular in Amsterdam.

    (I was actually hoping to make the letters in his name spell out he is of the devil, which would be possible if his middle name was "Ethesis," which it might be. I'm sure his publicist would hide such a middle name if it were true.)

    Second -- and most importantly -- David Hasselhoff and his television series were foretold in the Bible. Biblical scholars worldwide may quibble over interpretations, but they all agree on this. For a few telling examples let's skip to the end of the Bible. If any book of the Bible will tell us who the AntiChrist is, it's the Revelation of Saint John, which basically describes the AntiChrist and the Armageddon He causes. I'll just give you the verse, and the current theological interpretation of that verse.

    Who is the Beast?

    Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns The Beast, of course, is David Hasselhoff. The Heads are His separate television incarnations. Young and the Restless, Revenge of the Cheerleaders, Knight Rider, Terror at London Bridge, Ring of the Musketeers, Baywatch and Baywatch Nights.
    The ten horns represent His musical releases: Crazy For You, David, David Hasselhoff, Do You Love Me?, Du, Everybody Sunshine, I Believe, Looking For Freedom, Night Lover and Night Rockers.
    Not only does Mitch The Lifeguard literally "rise out of the sea" on Baywatch, but David's musical career has mostly occurred in Europe, a metaphoric rise to fame from across the sea.
    Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. Of course, this is a reference to his third head: Knight of the Phoenix, the first episode of Knight Rider. In this episode, "Michael Long, a policeman, is shot and left for dead. The shot is deflected by a plate in his head, but ruins his face. He is saved and his face reconstructed. He is reluctant, but agrees to use K.I.T.T. to help the Foundation for Law and Government fight criminals who are 'beyond the reach of the law'. " Knight Rider has been shown in 82 countries.
    Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. The following blasphemies are actual quotes from David Hasselhoff -- I read these while he was 42 years old.

    "I'm good-looking, and I make a lot of money."

    "There are many dying children out there whose last wish is to meet me."

    "I'm six foot four, an all-American guy, and handsome and talented as well!"

    "Before long, I'll have my own channel -- I'll be like Barney."

    "(Baywatch) is responsible for a lot of world peace." which the Hoff said at the Bollywood Oscars. Don't believe me? Read the original article!

    And here's a blasphemy that came from David's recent (Feb 2004) visit to the Berlin Wall museum. I couldn't have made something this great up by myself. He was upset that the museum didn't spend more tim

  2. posting link to unrelated penny arcade comic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/02/09/ [penny-arcade.com]

    please mod funny, i need the karma :(

  3. Re:WMD did exist and it has been proven by Enderandrew · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I would suggest that statistics don't lie, except that isn't true.

    However, I just heard Petraeus quote those numbers last week. For one, I think you underestimate how safe a good chunk of Iraq is these days. Angelina Jolie went over a few months back, toured the country, and as a vocal opponent of the war she said she was amazed the positive progress. She said millions of refugees have reentered cities, returned to their homes and resumed their lives. She spoke of the safety in cities, and how it must be preserved.

    Conversely, Detroit often bounces back and forth as the murder capitol of the country.

    http://engram-backtalk.blogspot.com/2008/10/murder-rate-in-baghdad.html

    A quick Google search shows someone's (crude) estimates coming up with similar results. For one, he estimates the population around 6 million in Baghdad, while many others claim 7 million, so he estimated on the high side for murder ratios. Still, it was lower than Detroit.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  4. Re:WMD did exist and it has been proven by gavron · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    No, just because you say so doesn't make it so.

    There was no such evidence.

    That's because there were no WMDs.

    That's why you have no evidence to show, no links to connect to, nothing to provide any shred of evidence.

    You can insist your fascist masters are not lying, but you can't find a shred of proof to back that up.

    He who asserts must prove.

    You've painted yourself with the color of lies and deceipt.

    E

  5. Re:WMD did exist and it has been proven by Enderandrew · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    You assert and insist WMD didn't exist, yet some were found.

    Look up the definition of fascist. I do not think that word means what you think it means.

    Also, look up deceit.

    Heck, buy yourself a dictionary.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  6. "You have completely lost your grip on reality" by DesScorp · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Recent statistics show Baghdad today is safer than Detroit.

    You have completely lost your grip on reality.

    And yet you didn't dispute his point... that there were more murders in Detroit than there were in Baghdad for the same time period.

    Look, I love the "lies, damned lies, and statistics" quote from Twain too, but facts are facts... you had a better chance of being mowed down in Detroit than you did in Baghdad. I've got a college buddy that's a law enforcement officer in Detroit, and he jokes about the Iraq/Detroit comparison all the time.

    --
    Life is hard, and the world is cruel