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Australia's Vast, Scattershot Censorship Blacklist Revealed
mask.of.sanity writes "Australia's secretive Internet filter blacklist held by its communications watchdog has been leaked, revealing the government has understated the amount of banned Web pages by more than 1000.
Multiple legitimate businesses and Web sites have been banned including two bus companies, online poker sites, multiple Wikipedia entries, Google and Yahoo group pages, a dental surgery and a tour operator.
Andrew Twaits, CEO of Betfair, a billion-dollar business blocked by the blacklist, was furious the government has potentially annexed tens of millions of dollars in revenue after the Betfair.com gambling site was blacklisted.
The blacklists were reportedly leaked by a Web filter operator to wikileaks which has published the full list of banned URLs.
Outraged privacy advocates say the government has effectively lied about the amount of URLs included in the blacklists, totaling more than 2300, and the type of content which it would ban.
The leak follows a series of attacks on the watchdog in which irate users successfully lobbied for web sites to be banned, only to be threatened with an $11,000 fine for publishing the link contained in the PR response. It was also revealed the watchdog can ban Web sites at a whim, with no accountability."
Then I typed the word "Goat" - I saw the .cx variation - well, at least they're making some attempt at saving the populace from the horrors of the web.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
i took a quick look at the blacklist and found some porn sites that i didn't know about. awesome! it's like a pre-filtered list of quality porn links! they saved me a lot of surfing time!
If they understated the number of blacklisted URLs by 1000, then there were 2300 when there should have been 1300. If they understated the amount of URLs blacklisted by 1000, then while there were actually 2300, there should only have been 2.3.
I am pretty sure you meant the former, not the latter. Please try harder next time.
I can only watch as my jaw is hanging limply. I can't believe that anyone who got power to do something would abuse that power. Really. Truly. They promised they wouldn't when we brought it up before. They said they were only doing it for us.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
The www.techworld.com.au blog link in the summary is broken. It is missing couple of "s" letters.
Here is a working link:
http://www.techworld.com.au/blog/broadbandvoice/2009/03/acmas_blacklist_a_bigots_battleground
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Could you fit any more links to computerworld.com.au in your text? :)
god bless wikileaks.
The blacklists were reportedly leaked by a Web filter operator to wikileaks which has published the full list of banned URLs.
These numerous government blacklists have proven to be a boon to porn and gambling industries. There are Web sites that I never would have even thought to go to if it weren't for these black lists. I want to thank the government of Australia for helping to open my eyes and my mind to the vast unseen Internet.
No they haven't, they've just said there are things on the published list that are not on the official list. They don't say that there's anything in the official list that's not on the published list. I suspect it's been intentionally seeded. It's kind of typical of politicians to say things in a way that sound like they're saying something else. You'll also notice he's threatening to launch an investigation into the people who released it. If it's not the list, then what exactly are they going to investigate?
My favourite from the list: files.kavefish.com/pictures/collections/funny_cat_pictures/_index-list.html
It's just funny cat pictures and nothing suggets there's ever been anything else.
Also, the list (although a month older than one on Wikileaks) can be obtained from Integard filter software. Hex edit the integard.exe and change first occurence of "datetimepicker.js" to websites_ACMA.txt, then login to integard's webUI and request that file. Apparently there's a whitelist of files the webUI server can give to the user. I've confirmed myself that the lolcats URL is indeed in that ACMA file from the filter software...
-- Matti Nikki
Now to add to my porn links.
If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
I just loaded up the wikileaks page and I hope I didn't make a mistake I'm going to regret.
Some of those links at are perfectly normal, the gambling ones, the wikipedia ones, nothing unusual.
Some of those links at are icky. Things that the extreme pro-lifers like to use in their pamphlets while I'm eating lunch icky.
Some of those links are actually very nasty and abhorrent. Worse than goatse.
Don't go randomly clicking.
Don't go randomly clicking!!
[Bookmarks] -> [Bookmark This Page] -> [Done]
Australia's Secret Internet Filter: Your one-stop shopping for porn!
Never confuse movement with action. --Hemingway
And I'll say it again.
In the haste to throw out the smarmy blue blooded $50k a year private school aristocrat wannabes known as the liberals out of government, we've introduced something that's so far been *far* worse. And I say that as someone voted for them!
At least the liberals had a solid grounding in running the country and seemed to know what the hell they were doing. So far Rudd and that dimwitted treasurer Swan have been blundering about without any sort of cohesive strategy and burning through billions of dollars a day doing it.
It would seem that like any 'revolution', when the dust settles usually the country ends up worse off when the populist leader takes power.
Even my father, a dyed in the wool blue collar labour man has started questioning whether Rudd's more interested in selling us out to China, financially AND ideologically than the he is in the national good. What sort of politician pushes something like this onto his own free country?
Who is Rudd really? (Seriously I'm genuinely interested).
Conroy is going to be on the ABC's QandA next Thursday evening at 9.30pm.
That should be good viewing :)
.
It should be noted that this isn't actually the ACMA blacklist. It's actually a list derived from the ACMA blacklist as stated on the wikileaks article in the summary.
Not a hoax. I've confirmed it myself by ripping websites_ACMA.txt out of Integard filtering software. Even if it's not identical to ACMA's own list, it damn well is identical to Integard's version of ACMA's list.
The list is real.
-- Matti Nikki
That's just obvious attempt at spin/cover-up. Some simple (as these things go) binary reverse engineering of the "Intergard" content filter already showed a similar (though not-identical, earlier) [snapshot of the] list - after all, it's a dynamic blacklist.
http://techwiredau.com/2009/03/was-an-acma-blacklist-leaked/
So, yeah, of course it's the real list, as at mid-2008. The current ACMA list is probably even bigger and more abuse-of-power filled.
Look, nobody not mentally ill likes true child porn. But consider keeping something valuable - do you demand everyone chop off their hands so they don't steal your gold? Or do YOU put it somewhere safe, with CCTV surveillance? So it is with children -
they don't have adult legal rights, being children. So monitor _children_, perhaps even encrypted feeds over the internet (and monitor who's watching the feeds, mind - unless they're parents or peers they're almost certainly sickos). When children turn 18, they get full adult legal rights, including right to privacy, and the camera monitoring is disengaged.
i.e. if you want to keep children safe, restrict and monitor them, not everyone else, just like keeping anything else precious safe.
When someone says "think of the children" about installing internet censorship, their goal is internet censorship, not keeping children safe!
Is there anything about the culture or government in the UK and Australia that makes them so prone to using CCTV, censorship, and all of this?
Let's all keep in mind that, as we review this list, this entire effort is made to protect the kids from being used for child pornography. Or something.
I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
When Bush took over America and went down many, many bad roads, the world took us to task. For cause. It wasn't news to us, and admittedly many of those taking us to task lived in even more corrupt places, but this is America. We don't do 'wrong', and that shit was clearly wrong, and it should never have happened.
We're supposed to be the good guys, dammit. Well, now the money's on the table, the vote came, the vote was made, we exorcised our demon and repairs are being made at record pace. We are the good guys, that never changed, and we're cleaning the tarnish that those brought to our shine. It's never perfect, nothing is, but we're at least going to try.
Well here in America, last we knew, Australia was a land of good guys too. Inviduality. Freedom. The good fight. SO WHAT THE FUCK'S GOING ON DOWN THERE?!? How the hell is this going on WITHOUT a 9/11?
It's time for the citizens of that fair nation to show us what they got. Time to whip out the vote and make things perfectly clear. Write a letter. Make a sign. Anything. I don't doubt that Australia has it in them, but if you're waiting for the right time, it looks like it's passed!
You'll also notice he's threatening to launch an investigation into the people who released it. If it's not the list, then what exactly are they going to investigate?
Who embarrassed them.
Kinda like when it was discovered the CIA was running secret prisons around the globe.
Government didn't want to investigate "what are they doing at these prisons" it was "who leaked their existence."
Shameful really, no matter which government or political party is doing it.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Yes... I highly recommend against clicking around on that blacklist. There's virtually nothing interesting on the list. Mostly dead links and things that will make you want to clear your browser cache.
A mythical beast, not quantifiable.
Just like "for the kids" and "anti-terrorist".
The ACMA list was stated as a hoax by the communications minister:
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25210931-5014239,00.html
Its well past time to bale-out of Australia anyway.
Love the profound wit in your .sig.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I'm in Australia at the moment, and I'm not able to access wikileaks directly, though it works perfectly fine through a proxy ... not sure if it is just my workplace ... wikileaks worked just fine yesterday ...
Conroy and ISPs implementing the blacklist confirm that this is a fake:
:-(
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/19/2520929.htm
I read about this earlier today; news media really have to check WikiLeaks out carefully before reporting it.
I think the black-list is absurd, it's baffling that we can actually have censorship here in Australia, and my reps know how I feel at least. But I don't think stunts like this help
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
Senator Stephen Conroy would like to recall the message: "ACMA Blacklist - see attachment".
Somewhere down the page:
http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html
I don't see any objectionable content.
Oooh look, the 4-chan party van just pulleCARRIER LOST
Well how exactly can you have secret prisons if people keep leaking it. I see the CIA's point on this one.
they blocked http://files.kavefish.com/pictures/collections/funny_cat_pictures/_index-list.html HA HA HA No more caturdays down under, eh mate?
"It's kind of typical of politicians to say things in a way that sound like they're saying something else. You'll also notice he's threatening to launch an investigation into the people who released it. If it's not the list, then what exactly are they going to investigate?"
I agree, speaking of "saying things" I still haven't heard Conroy say he is in favor of a blacklist...here let me clean up then cut&paste my theory from the last story...
Labor is playing the same game with Fielding as Howard did when he "wanted" to implement mandatory filters (that his party are now blocking in opposition). There were similar circumstances for Howard at the time (ie: a censorship nut holding a deciding vote on more important legislation). Here let me spell it out.
Labour have a full majority in the house that the Lib's can't block, (that's what makes them the government of the day). However they need the support of the all the Green's and the two independents (ie a coalition) to pass legislation through the senate that the Lib's cannot block. The Lib's also need a coalition to sucessfully block but only have to find one senator to join their coalition if they want to block the legislation.
Xenophon[sic] and Fielding (the two independents) both wanted a mandatory filter, (Xenophon has an anti-gambling platform). Labor set up a "trial" to keep them onside for as long as possible. Xenophon to his credit has seen the glaring human rights error in his plan to ban offshore gambling sites, Fielding has nowhere to go because he is now in the position of voting for a blacklist that bans his supporters (anti-abortionists), an independent's vote is no longer of much value since the major reform is out of the way ready for the next election, the Lib's, Labor and Greens are happy because they have collectively screwed "Mr 2%" for winning on their preference fuckery, Rudd is happy because Conroy is showing loyalty instead of challenging him in the back rooms like Costello did with Howard,....get my theory.....it's a YES MINISTER episode if ever I saw one.
Oh and check out the nude pictures of Hanson, unfortunately it's only funny because it's happening to someone I don't like.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
So... The ACMA (i.e. the government) is playing a losing game with the child pornographers who are always going to be one step ahead. They are also going to be fighting on anther front when "smart trousers" (credit to jimboot) are going to be leaking the black lists.
By the time the list is reverse engineered most of the questionable web-sites are going to be relocated and it starts again. Hopefully government will see the futility of the whole exercise...after 10 iterations :D
I know this is off-topic, but it's looking less and less likely that it was Hanson.
How bad must the woman who posed for some guy 30 years ago be feeling? She probably has a family now, and I doubt would want that kind of thing being dredged up (Some might say she "wouldn't like it" ;)). It's pretty irresponsible of the Telegraph to basically post nude photos of some nobody in a major newspaper just because she looks like a politician...
When children turn 18, they get full adult legal rights, including right to privacy, and the camera monitoring is disengaged.
By then it's too late. You've already conditioned them to accept the fact that Authority can and should monitor them for their own good. They're already used to the idea, so the next thing you know they'll think it is normal to pee in a bottle for a Manager so that employers will know what drugs they've taken, or they may think it's normal for companies or governments to monitor what you email to people. Nope, if you treat children like shit then they will grow up to be assholes. Garbage in garbage out.
Goes without saying for us lot, but be really careful looking at the list if you have a browser with a link accelerator (that crawls forward links and caches them). Could find yourself catching someone's attention, not if you're in Australia though, the feds are too busy running after the people who leaked the list that isn't really the list.
Can anyone tell me WTF is wrong with this page?
WARNING: I haven't checked personally, since I live in Australia, so it may not be work-friendly.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
It's fascinating to see what occurs behind the kangaroo curtain.
When the hell did they become Soviet Australia?
The real victims of internet filtering are those poor souls who are in charge of creating and maintaining the filter list. They are exposed to the most vile, the foulest and most disgusting content on the Internet.
Imagine the worst Internet sites you have ever been tricked into seeing, and multiply the horror tenfold. That is nothing compared to the daily workload of a filtering technician, who checks thousands of those sites every day.
Then, they must gather in panels of judges to determine which material must be censored, to ensure greater accountability and protect the moral safety of all citizens. Together they discuss the content and images found on the foulest of Web sites.
So you know why this whole censorship thing is such a terrible idea? Because these images are so dangerous, so damaging, that they cause irreparable mental trauma to the workers who are exposed all day long. It is a barbaric practice.
Until the day we can develop an Artificial Intelligence that can automatically censor all content correctly according to moral criteria defined and enforced by the government, we must stop hurting the workers who are condemned to this, the most traumatizing of jobs, and put an end to Internet censorship.
For those who follow such things, Senator Conroy is going to be on the panel for next Thursday night's Q&A on the ABC. I think it's high time the Senator took some questions on the subject in front of a live studio audience and on national TV, since he's spent the better part of 15 months ignoring everyone and accusing people of equating free speech with child pornography.
Athy, athier, athiest.
I agree with NevarMore. Anti-abortion sites can have some stomach-turning pics. But that's not the real problem. The real reason why that one was blacklisted is pre-term porn. Yep, it's a growing evil. All those nekkid pictures of poor defenceless foetuses: Pre-term porn, a social disaster just waiting to happen. http://vmlojwclog.blogspot.com/2009/03/official-concern.html
I'm not so sure this is off topic.
Interesting way to get Apple's sites blocked.
When children turn 18, they get full adult legal rights, including right to privacy, and the camera monitoring is disengaged.
In many countries the age of legal consent is far below 18.
In Canada the age of legal consent is 15.
It's terribly arrogant of you to assume that your moral standards apply to me or anyone else.
Some people are only alive because it's against the law for me to hunt them down and kill them.
Australian's, Start Mirroring that list!
I just putted it up on my website, hosted here in Adelaide: http://www.diskiller.net/ I guess the AFP will be paying me a visit? lulz.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
It's a secret list. You can't know what sites are on it, but you can't link to sites on the list.
It's like your girlfriend who doesn't want you to say certain things, but won't tell you what they are.
Only a government weasel could come up with such an idea. It's clear he doesn't know how the Internet works.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
any good child-porn links?
--
Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
You said:
In Canada the age of legal consent is 15.
The reality:
The Age of Consent was actually 14 until just recently. The Conservative minority government at the time convinced the struggling appeasement-minded Liberals to vote most of their draconian right-wing legislation into reality. And so,
The Tackling Violent Crime Act took effect on 1 May 2008, making the current age of consent 16.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_North_America#Canada
This is my first and last post on Slashdot, this community mostly disgusts me through their inactivity when it comes to issues like this.
Stop being armchair philosophers. Go out, and spread the word. Stick a few posters around the area where you live. I know I am. The fact that this Internet filter is happening at all, is very much thanks to the fact that there was no significant opposition to it - that the people sat down and said nothing. The vermin of the slums (ever lived in an community where most people have lived their entire adult lives on State handouts? "Vermin" is rather polite for the situation, I think) have an excuse, they are used to receiving their welfare payments without cause for concern nor complaint. But we, the taxpaying citizentry of this country, the middle-class yuppies, have a right to express our opinion to our fellows without repression. It is the very foundation of our society, something so many men have given their lives for in ages past.
What have we done with this privilege - and it IS a privilege - what use have we made of it? Nothing. We sit idly by as our tax dollars go to waste, our education system lags behind, catering to the stupid rather than promoting the brightest, our healthcare system falls into disrepute and our trains continue to run late (oh sorry, I mean "behind the Scheduled Time", they're not late any more since CityRail redefined "late", right? Right?).
We can sit here and feel good about ourselves, or we can do something.
Get up and act. Leave your comfort zone, stop sending emails to Senator Conroy, we both know he doesn't give a damn. Go outside, do something useful. Each one of us must act in order to bring about greater change. The inactivity of others is no excuse for our own inactivity, and now you see the results of that inactivity, this filter progresses, full steam ahead.
The house of democratic society was built upon the blood of heroes, not cowards.
Um, we're a democratic republic, somewhat similar to your own country. We have no way of forcibly blocking legislation like this until the next election, excepting widespread civil disobedience or an outright coup.
They need to weight individual MPs votes by their local approval rating. That would give us a direct way to affect proceedings. As it is, the whole system's a farce. At least with a king, if he gets bad enough you can shoot him and install another one without having to wait until next election.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
i guess instead of making a filter, the responsible government agencies should prosecute the persons (web hosting services) responsible for hosting such objectionable content if its within their jurisdiction. maybe the govt should make a joint effort with other governments of other countries to prosecute the criminals involved.
The blacklists were reportedly leaked by a Web filter operator to wikileaks
When something dangerous is involved, you must never give any information that can be used to catch the source.
If that web filter operator is fired and sued you have ruined his life and stopped that future source of information.
And here I thought that the war on terror was high on the security list. Go figure.....
It is nice to know that you do not have to represent a government to engage in "spycraft".
It is also nice to know that the People have moles in governments and in corporations. Kudos, to whoever you are.
Sad state of affairs that it is required, though.
What a bunch of fucking pricks. What's bad is I have to work for people from that country, and let me tell you, making bad decisions seems to be an epidemic over there. The hardware and software engineering decisions they make infuriate me.
But apparently, you didn't click the link. You should have. Apart from being funny, it's also a perfect example of the nonsense of these lists. Here it is: http://www.goat.cx (and no, it's not exactly why you think it is)
He's watching the Aussies masturbate!
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
He's watching Aussies masturbate.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
MaroochyBoardingKennels.com.au?
Why the FUCK are they blocking a small business in Australia? ABOUT FUCKING BOARDING KENNELS??
Err ... while on the subject of Aussies ... I have a proposal to ban the sale of matches to all Australians over the age of five. In the interest of preventing conflagrations in the bush you see. How about it?
I hear this phrase all the time. What does it mean?
If they're intent on filtering based on url or association then the counterattack is easy, just build a proxy server into every website, some kind of php/pl/net plugin that runs a web browser inside the web page you're visiting, heck it could even send gif image maps of the pages to help counteract keyword filtering. This would mean the "offensive" web requests going between the proxy web-site's server and your target web-site server, and not through your countries filter. Of course there could be a filter between THOSE two machines, hence the proxy-in-EVERY-site solution to that.
If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
Um, we're a democratic republic, somewhat similar to your own country
No, Australia is a constitutional monarchy, the Queen of England is Australia's monarch.
have you heard of the DNA database that has been in operation for a number of decades in Oz? You are questioned, as if you are a moron/pervert, as to why you dont want your child to have its DNA taken and collected when its born.
Do you remember that scene in Gattaca in the hospital where the little boy's blood is collected and tested.
Now, I'm assuming you're an Australian...
You know we're a constitutional monarchy, right?
You don't have any way of blocking legislation like this.
You vote for 'representatives' who, when you have voted them into power, represent someone else's interests (usually their own)
Don't kid yourself that a vote gives you power. If both political parties have similar agendas, the electorate is left with no choice.
thanks for the list :0
Many countries are currently working on internet filters, they block on the prodivders DNSes.
They dont really speak of it, an example is Italy. (France to be next in 2010)
Check the italian list :
http://www.aams.it/site.php?op=download&page=20060213093339750
Check number 4, and you will see that betfair is blocked in Italy too btw :-)
Id like all the banking websites banned, then no one can pay their bills, and the country will grind to a halt.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
You can find the answer here
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
No, the Queen of Australia is Australia's monarch.
It just happens that the Queen of Australia is also, but independently, the Queen of the United Kingdom.
That aside, the monarch has no law making powers at all, it's entirely in the hands of parliament.
Advanced users are users too!
Care to back up your statement with some references?
I don't know of any sites being shutdown willy nilly. I do recall one site around 5 or 6 years ago being shut down after a police investigation into racial vilification abuse (not an Internet specific law) but apart from that I'm not aware of any others.
all at the same time.
That would be hilarious!
For obvious legal reasons (i.e. the fact Australian government no longer even pretends to believe in freedom of expression), I'm not going to post a direct link to the list, but wikileaks now has the blacklist - updated as recently as of two days ago.
I expect the site to be under very heavy load, but it's there for those who know where to look.
Other than being a domain typo, www.ninmsn.com just redirects to a web index.
Are we going to include all domain squatting / domain misspellings / misregistrations now as well?
What about google cache of a banned URL?
It seems clear that the URL filter won't be capable of doing RegEx expansion.
But slashdot doesn't have an upside down font.
I agree, speaking of "saying things" I still haven't heard Conroy say he is in favor of a blacklist...
Of course not. If it were up to him, we'd have a whitelist.
Um, we're a democratic republic, somewhat similar to your own country.
Who is a republic here?
Australia is a Constitutional Monarchy, talk of a republic is just that talk.
To paraphrase from the monkeysphere (IMHO, one of the best short essays on the net); We all snicker when the preacher gets caught snorting coke of a hooker's arse. Now you could argue the preacher deserves to be exposed (so to speak) but the hooker didn't agree to having her photo blasted around the planet for the standard hourly rate, the hooker doesn't matter because we're busy amusing ourselves screwing a characticure outside our monkeysphere.
The guy with the photo's (or some other guy?) has been claiming the same thing for years, he has made some ripples on the net in the past. Coincidently he makes a splash in the tabloids when Hanson starts talking about her "comeback".....again.... This guy may have had all sorts of medications but the pills haven't hampered his legal abilities, from what I saw of his statements he has maintained "I could be wrong, it may not be her" but insists "her name was Pauline". And yeah, it would be nice to think Pauline is laughing, but I doubt it. Hanson gets another 15 minutes of fame which she spends telling the interviewer "You don't understand. They ARE out to get me!", then storms off because nobody takes her seriously.
Spin masters no longer need to think up the story, there are ready made "scandals" on the web for any concivable purpose all they need do is pick out some favorites for people on their shit list and get them 'printed' at the right time.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
There are enough ex-pat Aussies in London already.
All I'm asking for is a direct quote, do you have one?
I personally don't give a rat's arse wether Conroy is or isn't in favor. However I am interested to see if someone can poke holes in my idea because I can't. I've been posting this simple mythbusting task since June last year, so far nobdy has busted my Humphrey theory....not even a link to a false alarm.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Not sure if you are referring to Australia, but last time I checked, Australia was still a constitutional monarchy. Not that it changes your point in any way. I honestly have nfi at times who our politicians are actually representing.
Um yeah... but we're not a republic...
Fun list - never know if you're gonna get porn, sick porn, or aborted babies. Just like StileProject back in the day!
At least with a king, if he gets bad enough you can shoot him and install another one without having to wait until next election.
The beauty of Monarchy...
Wonder if there's a way to post comments on their website, and, if so, will they fine themselves if I post a link to a banned website?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Xenophon to his credit has seen the glaring human rights error in his plan to ban offshore gambling sites, [...]
I don't think he has, I think he's just realised that the filter can't be effective, and therefore there's no point implementing it.
Ie: he's not supporting it because it wouldn't ban enough sites.
Prior to the 14th amendment, most of the rights in the Bill of Rights pertained to states, not individuals. It was only enforceable against Congress--states could do as they willed. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_(Bill_of_Rights)
"in 1833 the Supreme Court held in Barron v. Baltimore that the Bill of Rights applied only to the Federal, but not any State, government. Even years after the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment the Supreme Court in United States v. Cruikshank, still held that the First and Second Amendment did not apply to state governments. However, beginning in the 1890s, a series of United States Supreme Court decisions interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to "incorporate" most portions of the Bill of Rights, making these portions, for the first time, enforceable against the state governments."
The framers knew their "philosophical shit". They knew that societies have the desire and will to regulate themselves, and that the point was that people have an interest in their own government. The point of the Constitution was to prevent one region of America from exerting power over another.
It's nice that you're opinionated, but that doesn't give you the justification to talk so forcefully when you are clearly in ignorance of the issues at hand.
I'm Australian living in Boston, and I wanted other Australians back home to know, that this was a large article in the free daily commuter newspaper.
So this backwards thinking by the Oz government, has been noticed around the world as backwards.
PS I'm pleased to see no references to "down under" yet. Australians HATE Australia being referred to as "down under". We are all stuck to the ball of rock by gravity. We are ALL on top of it, not under.
The intention isn't to censor, the government is using the censorship (also known as 'protection') furphy to get it's foot in the door of Australian ISPs.
What this is really about is the first step towards putting a stop to the downloading of TV shows. The web censorship hype has always had the monitoring of downloads riding on it's coat-tails.
Aussies downloading prime-time TV is hitting the hip-pockets of some very influential people, the television station that backed Rudd from the beginning by giving him free air time has recently announced that they will be entering the ISP business, providing pay-per-download via the web.
Odds-on Conroy will end up being thrown to the wolves, word is that he's been given this job as a way of discrediting him and getting him out of the political scene (he is something of an idiot, so no loss there), the censorship thing will die a natural death and everyone will applaud a victory for democracy. In the meantime, the government will have done it's tests and internet users will get fines for copyright violations as automagically as those for traffic offenses, pay-per-download via the good folks at Channel 7 will be there as a convenient legal alternative.
Maybe, I haven't paid as much attention to him because he gave up early.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Wouldn't it be easy for someone (better at perl or something than me) to create a "test a bunch of links" script? Start adding sites that could maybe be "forbidden". Run it in Australia and from some other place and see what flies. You'd be able to set up a web page even, and start building the list. Maybe you wouldn't get everything on the official secret list, but you'd come up with a good chunk of it. That actually can't really keep the list secret. Ever. I mean, even at it's most basic, if you try to get to a website in Australia and can't, ask a friend in some other country to try and if they can, boom, it's on the no-no list. I don't understand. "Secret list"?
Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
"You've already conditioned them to accept the fact that Authority can and should monitor them for their own good"
This is non sequitur, buddy. Way overgeneralizing. It's a common non-scientific conclusion that obedience to parents means obedience to authority.
Don't tell me you have never heard the phrase "you are not my father" from kids. That's exactly how majority of children feel: only parents can do to them some stuff.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Don't call yourself democratic, dude. A democracy is more than legislative representatives and majority rule. It also includes guarantees for minority populations, as well as freedom of assembly, discussion, and enquiry.
Australia is now a former democracy.
I agree, speaking of "saying things" I still haven't heard Conroy say he is in favor of a blacklist...
Of course not. If it were up to him, we'd have a whitelist.
but how would it be different from a blacklist?
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
china,
iran
welcome to the club, blokes
i guess australia is angling to be the bush administration era america for this time period
pffffft
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
OK, I oopsed and said democratic republic when I should have said constitutional monarchy. Now pretend that the Queen hasn't had jack to say about Australia except "oh, I say, those rabbits are rather large" for the last god knows how many years, and you'll see that the result is very, very similar to a democratic republic.
.au. Us plebs don't get any say in the matter in between elections, and even then we only get to choose between carbon copies that all promise the same things. ("Tough on crime", "tough on drugs", "we'll keep your creaking geriatric bones safe from those damnable 'young people'"). There's no real choice since our population is so uniform that everyone stands for the same things.
Basically we're a country that's governed by a bunch of punks who were the least worst option for their little patch of
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
"You've already conditioned them to accept the fact that Authority can and should monitor them for their own good"
This is non sequitur, buddy. Way overgeneralizing. It's a common non-scientific conclusion that obedience to parents means obedience to authority.
First:
This is non sequitur.
No it isn't
Second:
buddy.
I'm not your buddy.
Third:
Way overgeneralizing. It's a common non-scientific conclusion that obedience to parents means obedience to authority.
Nonsense. If you were honest you would admit that the AC wasn't talking about obedience or normal parenting, he was promoting abusive and pathological control of and surveillance of children and teenagers under the age of 18. Your attempt to re-frame the argument failed.
It's a common non-scientific conclusion that obedience to parents means obedience to authority.
Itself is a non sequitur. You're not very good at trolling. You should have spent your time criticizing the logical fallacies of the AC, because there were many of them.
I will revise that part of my theory before the next cut&paste, something like..."Xenophon caved early, perhaps smelling a rat, he withdrew his support for the bill."
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
You used to be cool.
Exactly. Without freedoms of speech and assembly, you're deluding yourself if you think you live in a democracy.
With betfair banned, it might be a good idea to closely check the ownership of their biggest Aussie rivals...
Do you have ESP?
Are those two votes really worth having their party tarred as the party of censorship? It seems like it'll just play into the hands of right-wing critics who consider leftist parties to be the parties of authoritarianism and the nanny state---because in this case they really are.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Sorry, but that's a cop-out. You have a Labor-lead government who wants to remove porn and anything they disagree with from the internet, and is using the Christian loony as cover.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
He can't. Wikipedia is forbidden because it links to forbidden Wikipedia entries.
Right, and what now, you're going to install CCTVs in peoples homes? That is where children spend most of their time, and they are most likely to be molested by people that they have some sort of relationship with.
The only way to deal with this problem is to make sure pedophiles get help. And since they are the ones that know first if they have a problem, we need a way for them to be able to contact someone that can help them without risking legal repercussion (provided they haven't already molested someone). And even if they have already molested someone we need to focus on making the situation better, not lock people up and pretend that it's payback.
Rules and law often inhibit progression of society.
They need to weight individual MPs votes by their local approval rating.
Interesting, although the devil is in the details of how approval ratings would be measured.
You might want to consider what other improvements are politically and technically practical. Australia already has a relatively sophisticated vote counting system (instant runoff voting, which is not my favorite, but still pretty good in my opinion). So, perhaps the most universally understandable improvement in responsiveness would come from having more frequent elections. Lowering the stakes in elections and reducing the time that a losing politician needs to wait to run for reelection would encourage them to be slightly more honest in stating their opinions and would give them more accurate feedback about what the public really thinks.
Me thinks their prime minister has been spending too much time in China.
How can a modern 1st world democracy use net censorship?
Fraud. Maybe he wants to defraud the Australian public of genuine fraudulence?
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) - Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Congrats, my government is violating human right. Don't blame me. I voted for the Shooter's Party.
I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it
Voltaire.
Simple.
Agreed...
You cant pass your rights on to your children by giving up all those rights when you 'Think of the Children'.
The world is a dangerous scary place. Kids need to learn that sooner or later. Preferably sooner so they'll be well armed and prepared to deal with the threats that are out there.
09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
+2 Troll is Slashdot's way of saying groupthink is confused
Lets just say I've seen the list and it's not just filtering out pedo-incest-bestiality junk.
Actually, only under half the list is related to that, the rest are gambling sites, soft, mild & hardcore porn sites, gore sites. Even the famous Abby Winters and Tube Kings are on it. I Shoot Myself is on it too. If anyone has ever seen I Shoot Myself content is is not even remotely porn related. It's barely erotica. The fact that this is being censored is of great concern to me.
Stephen Conroy the lying inbred mongrel clearly stated in an ABC interview "only content that can't be rated" will be on that list. Well, this just proves even material that can be rated makes that list.
The list is illegal to distribute & the www.wikileaks.org page linking to the list is already blacklisted and you can't even load it. So if you want to take a look at it you need to google search "proxy site" (like www.freeproxyserver.net) and use a gateway to access the list.
It's times like this the movie 1984 & the Hitler quote grimly & eerily portend our fate:
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation." - Adolf Hitler.
So now that the Australian government are proven lairs and are not only banning pedophilia but anything gambling, gore and porn related, do you guys think their list will keep growing to eventually include political content sites and anything anti-establishment?
Lets just say I've seen the list and it's not just filtering out pedo-incest-bestiality junk.
Actually, only under half the list is related to that, the rest are gambling sites, soft, mild & hardcore porn sites, gore sites. Even the famous Abby Winters and Tube Kings are on it. I Shoot Myself is on it too. If anyone has ever seen I Shoot Myself content is is not even remotely porn related. It's barely erotica. The fact that this is being censored is of great concern to me.
Stephen Conroy the lying inbred mongrel clearly stated in an ABC interview "only content that can't be rated" will be on that list. Well, this just proves even material that can be rated makes that list.
The list is illegal to distribute & the www.wikileaks.org page linking to the list is already blacklisted and you can't even load it. So if you want to take a look at it you need to google search "proxy site" (like www.freeproxyserver.net) and use a gateway to access the list.
It's times like this the movie 1984 & the Hitler quote grimly & eerily portend our fate:
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation." - Adolf Hitler.
So now that the Australian government are proven lairs and are not only banning pedophilia but anything gambling, gore and porn related, do you guys think their list will keep growing to eventually include political content sites and anything anti-establishment?
Hang Conroy you criminal!