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Will Australia Follow China's Google Ban?
gadgetopia writes "A news report in Forbes says that China has blocked Google with its great firewall; now the world waits to see if Australia's Minister for Censorship, Senator Stephen Conroy, will do the same following his outrageous attacks on Google."
Politics might be stupid in Australia, like lots of places. But no, it won't go the same was as China.
We have transparency and rule of law.
However fucked out Communications Minister might be.
--Q
Only a matter of time until the former discredits himself like the latter did. His railing against Google makes him sound foolish.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
What about censorship of political, religious, and controversial viewpoints? This is about Freedom of expression and Freedom of communication more than it is about any single issue. If the blocking were voluntary so that people could decide individually if their internet should be censored, I could understand. If the black list were publicly available so that people inside and outside the country could audit what is being blocked, I could maybe understand. If the previously leaked block list hadn't included material that they had claimed wasn't going to be blocked, I could maybe, just possibly agree with you.
As it stands, you have a government organization which will have the ability to block any website that they want without warning or explanation. There will be no way for people inside the firewall to know what is and what isn't being blocked. And said government organization has already been shown to be either incompetent or nefarious regarding what is being added to the blacklist. It's a bad situation, and it in fact does trample on human rights.
when your economy is trashed by greedy speculation then fear and hysteria. that's what sent germany to the dogs: the great depression, the collapse of the financial world
aka, what the world just experiences in 2008 (on a much smaller scale, true)
but this historical parallel leads us to four observations:
1. the angry tea partiers, with their brick throwing and insane murderous anger, IS kristallnacht, on a smaller scale
2. intolerant deluded propagandized fools hording guns in the woods are the seeds of fascism, NOT our protectors from fascism
3. we need strong government regulation in the financial sector, and the assholes (greenspan and co) who dismantled the 1930s era (irony) protections need to be grilled a la congressional hearings and roundly castigated for their dangerous irresponsibility
4. hopefully the world, and the usa, can weather this horde of angry morons out of work, the seeds of fascism, without them crystallizing around some modern day hitler-like demagogue and mounting a political (and visceral: they love guns) challenge to civilization. and then let the retards fade away into history
interesintg note: many tea partiers receive government benefits (unemployment, medicaid)... while they rail against government aid. they go to tea party rallies... instead of looking for work. fucking ignorant hypocrites
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/politics/28teaparty.html
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
That's exactly what we're claiming. Google believes that information should be free, not controlled by those in power for their own ends, and it has shown a willingness to fight for that freedom.
Before you say "But it's only kiddy porn!" just ask yourself how often bad and self serving legislation is passed under the mantra that it's "for the children"?
I read the internet for the articles.
There's the problem right there: In a free society it's supposed to be a stewardship, not a dictatorship.
I highly doubt most citizens of a free country want their government to restrict where they can go online, much less censor via a secret list.
If you think imaginary property and real property are the same, when does your house become public domain?
If you had went back to Germany in the 20's and told them that within 20 years, their country would elect one of the most intolerant demagogues and world history as dictator and begin systematically committing the genocide of a sizable portion of their population, they would have laughed at the thought.
They might not have expected actual genocide (I mean, no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition), but Weimar Germany was never a stable polity and everyone knew it. There was a monarchy before the war, which might not be Slashdot's favorite form of government, but it only got worse thereafter. The Kaiser's abdication in 1918 was immediately followed by violence in the streets between leftists and nationalists (who eventually all threw in their lot with the Nazis). There was even a short-lived "People's Republic of Bavaria" around this time, as well as the founding of the Nazi party itself. The various rebellions were eventually put down and replaced by the perpetually weak Weimar Republic, but they continued to operate. The brutal provisions of the Versailles treaty kept the country in a state of perpetual depression throughout the twenties (the famous hyperinflation was in 1923), causing widespread political discontent, characterized by street fights between socialists and nationalists. The government was already harassing leftist media outlets by the late 20's, before the Nazis even took power.
They might have been intellectually sophisticated, but politically and economically sophisticated they were not. I know Australia and the UK hate freedom a lot, so I'm not saying it couldn't happen there, but the situation in Weimar Germany is really not at all comparable.
First they blocked the child porn sites,
and I didn't speak up because I abhore child abuse.
Then they blocked all gay sex sites,
and I didn't speak up because I'm not gay.
Then they blocked all the sites that support terrorists,
and I didn't speak up because I forgot that one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.
Then they blocked all porn sites,
and I didn't speak up because I like my sex real.
Then they blocked all the all political sites,
and I didn't speak up because who reads those things anyway?
Then they blocked all the web sites complaining about the blocking,
and I couldn't speak up.
(Apologies to Martin Niemöller)
Do as you would be done to.
Our Minister for communications etc. might be an idiot, but we're still a developed Western democracy in which the majority of the population have internet access and Google has most of the search engine market share. Blocking Google would be the end of this government and the internet filter; not a single voter would support it.
more than they fear morons running around with guns?
its a serious, honest question
i for one would gladly outlaw guns. the result? lots less senseless deaths. increase in risk of fascism? zero
guns are not the salvation from, nor the guard against, a descent into fascism. fascism does not derive from a gunfight, nor is some gunfight going to save us from fascism. its some sort of boyscout fantasy
indeed, if anything, if fascism comes to the usa, ti will be born of the same paranoid rantings of psychotics hording guns in the woods
put it this way: if you trust to guns, more than you trust to words, that shows the extent of your commitment to civil democratic values
guns are incompatible with democracy. they do not underpin it, they threaten it
if the noble experiment known as the united states ever comes to an end, it will done at the hands of armed factions, it will not be saved by such visceral forces
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it