Australian Website Bans ... Australians

Nazlfrag writes "Earlier this month the blog and discussion forum ZGeek was sued for $42 million AUD over a user's comment. The plaintiffs are aspiring movie producers who claim to have lost a movie deal due to a 9/11 conspiracy discussion thread. Even though the initial lawsuit has been thrown out, and the company complied with lawyers' demands by taking down the offending posts, it is believed the plaintiffs will file suit again. In addition to suing the forum, in an Australian first they have been granted an injunction to force the ISPs to disclose the IP addresses of the two posters involved. Due to the risk of incurring even greater legal costs the company is closing its doors in Australia, and will ban their fellow countrymen from posting there again."

Comments

SEND HELP

[justinlee37]

I was going to say the same thing. Thank you. That man is an embarrassment to my country.

But my country is also an embarrassment so what else is new. SEND HELP. I'm sorry we bombed everything and assassinated a bunch of foreign politicians. Really. It was our congress and our military. The whole country has been seized by idiotic bi-partisanism and a capitalist mentality so strong that it doesn't matter who you vote for because the corporate lobbyists will buy out whoever wins and pull on their puppet strings anyway. Unfortunately the only people who get elected are those who have billions of dollars to run for office (usually through corporate donations) because the people at large are stupid enough to base their vote on a 30-second video clip of propaganda (sorry "political advertisement"), and not everyone even votes in the first place!

If we had runoff elections where people ranked their candidates in order of preference, instead of just picking one, bi-partisanism would crumble, people would vote for who they really wanted, and maybe we'd actually elect an honest politician or two. Unfortunately the bi-partisanism means that no one currently in office will honestly support the kind of election reform that would erode the base of their power!

So SEND HELP. Country has been hi-jacked. Plus we have all these idiots who can't tell the difference between Austria and Australia.

Re:Poor Aussies

[girlintraining]

I'm shocked nobody has called bullshit on this one yet. Damn, dude. Check snopes.

First, Not. A. Dude. I'm a dyke, get it right. Second -- who gives a damn whether it's an urban legend or not, the point still stands. And if you want to drive the point home differently, we have entire libraries dedicated to containing our code of laws. Judicial rulings also form part of that code, and even a law professor will tell you the answer to any legal question these days is a definitive "maybe."

British...

[irving47]

I'm starting to have serious concerns about anyone who puts the queen on their money.

First. Almost certainly a 43 yo hairy greek man.

[Anonymous Coward]

First, Not. A. Dude. I'm a dyke,

First, you're almost certainly a 43 year old American-Greek man named Dimitri with hairy feet, who still lives with his mother (moved out for a year, but couldn't cope doing your own washing).

Second -- who gives a damn whether it's an urban legend or not, the point still stands.

The point does not stand. You've chosen to illustrate your point with an urban legend. You're clearly rather credulous and there's no good reason to listen to your ideas.

Re:Poor Aussies

[lena_10326]

How cute.. you conveniently left out the other male oriented usages knowing fully they were more commonly used, lower numbered, and more numerous.

American Heritage

dude n.

1. Informal. An Easterner or city person who vacations on a ranch in the West.

2. Informal. A man who is very fancy or sharp in dress and demeanor.

3. Slang. 1. A man; a fellow. 2. dudes Persons of either sex.

Oh yes.. don't forget Random House. Listed before the American Heritage passage.

Random House.

dude -noun

1. a man excessively concerned with his clothes, grooming, and manners.

2. Slang. fellow; chap.

3. a person reared in a large city.

4. Western U.S. an urban Easterner who vacations on a ranch.

And then there's the etymology.

dude

1883, "fastidious man," New York City slang of unknown origin. The vogue word of 1883, originally used in ref. to the devotees of the "aesthetic" craze, later applied to city slickers, especially Easterners vacationing in the West (dude ranch first recorded 1921). Surfer slang application to any male is first recorded c.1970. Female form dudine (1883) has precedence over dudess (1885).

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dude

Re:how is it possible?

[mcgrew]

I never thought you were stupid. Crazy, but not stupid.