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Australian Govt Censors Notes From Secret Anti-Piracy Talks
An anonymous reader writes "It looks as if the Australian Government really doesn't want the public to know what's going on in its closed-door talks with ISPs and the content industry. The Attorney-General's Department has applied the black marker to almost all of the information contained in documents about the meetings released under Freedom of Information laws. The reason? It wouldn't be in the 'public interest' to release the information. Strange how the public seems to have a high degree of interest in finding out what's being talked about."
Maybe Stephen Conroy can win internet villain of the year a second time.
You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
Absolutely sickening, and yet we are helpless to do anything. That Stephen Conroy is the biggest clown but the Australian public are too stupid to realise. Truly saddening,
You'd think people would get tired after being anally raped for so long (Really, you can only rape someone for so long before it's just sex...) and found a "No Anal Rape" party. I think most people would agree that not being anally raped by corporations and politicians is a cause worthy of getting behind.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I'm sure the honorable public servant can explain how getting a free copy of finding nemo is equivalent to national security concerns as information regarding terrorists and how its justified to withhold the government's activities regarding piracy.
Hollywood
The Australian government has "a special room" in almost every single ISP with a machine capable of taking a full duplication of traffic for almost any customer. This applies to phone networks as well.
I know someone who installs this equipment, he will not even TALK ABOUT it online, he literally won't type it in an email, IM or messaging system of any kind. Offline it's difficult to get info regarding it out of him.
Those boxes, to my knowledge do not require a warrant, the government can just remotely log in and start recording. Obviously they can't use the data in court without some kind of warrant but the equipement is there.
Posting this anonymously I will assume is enough - I don't have much more information than that unfortunately. If anyone else does, please feel free to reply.
Conroy is not the biggest - he is one of many. Only 30% of the population support Labor (an organisation that can't even spell its own name correctly). A large percentage of the population dispise and detest them. However, short of civil inssurection, how the hell do you get rid of them? The people can't call an election and they have taken away our guns.
This person doesn't live in Oz.
We can call an election, it's just that no-one wants to. We dont need guns to do that, I suspect the GP is not Australian and doesn't realise Aussies can sort out their problems without violence. To get an election called, all we need to do is prove to the Governor-General that the current government is unfit, then she dissolves parliament. The thing is, no-one wants to, elections are a pain in the arse, a waste of a good Saturday and the Liberals are even worse then Labor.
The Labor party is actually preferred over the Coalition in the two party preferred poll, add the popularity of the Greens and they will retain control next election (ALP with the help of the Greens). If anything, I expect more votes to go to Green and independent candidates. The Coalition will never get in because Abbott's just a patsy for the Liberal power brokers and their economic policies are insane ($70 Billion dollar black hole the shadow treasurer cant account for).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Not that I disagree with their view here, but the summary makes the mistake of conflating 'the public interest' with what is 'interesting to the public'.
This is the way it will be. You have no say in it. You elected us so we make all your decisions now. Comrade.
We don't care if those decisions bankrupt the country or put it on the hook for a 50 billion dollar white elephant (The NBN) or commit a year of GDP to a dead cause (One trillion dollars - the Carbon Tax). You will like it. We don't care if you think the legislation for these and other critical policies (for example the mining tax) was rushed through parliament without due consideration, in fact with practically NO consideration at all. We don't care if government ROI is at an all time low and we don't care that, as a minority government hanging on to power by the skin of our teeth (literally a seat or two) we are able to make fundamental changes to the Australian economy by ramming home these policies without due consideration.
Australian People: Federalism in Australia is broken. The Australian constitution is broken if it can allow such things to occur. Call an election now. The Federal Labour government is a dead man walking, The Queensland state Labour government is a dead woman walking, NSW Labour is already gone and Bob Carr had better consider himself just a seat warmer.
- A disgruntled Aussie who thinks both major parties are living in Head-Up-Arse land.
From the brief: "It wouldn't be in the 'public interest' to release the information. Strange how the public seems to have a high degree of interest in finding out what's being talked about."
We get a lot of that disagreement between the citizens and the government here in the States as well. And when tax time comes along, I apply the same reasoning to whether or not paying them would be "in the government interest". Or the public's.
If everyone did that, governments would shape up PDQ out of sheer necessity. Even if the politicians and the courts don't work, the People still have recourse. Which reminds, tax time is almost here in the U.S.. Pay them any non-negative amount you think they're worth.
The Wolfpack Project: BitCoin + Crowdfunding = Political Accountability
I can understand how you can redact portions of documents where release of information might lead to physical harm, like planned locations of troops or identities of informants.
But how on earth can there be ANYTHING not releasable in a talk on copyright? There is nothing that could be talked about that would cause physical harm to others.
This absolutely stinks and I hope the courts can be brought into release the information attempted to be hidden from the public.
So what has been hidden? My best guess is that the document shows a terrifying contempt for the common citizen in regards to rights they have, and they are really worried about how that would come across in the press.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
In a briefing issued to Attorney-General Nicola Roxon regarding the meeting, the department noted that it continued to prefer an industry-negotiated solution to the issue of Internet content piracy.
Industry-negotiated "solutions" are the antithesis of a democratic process.
It's amazing that governments not only allow this to happen, but actively facilitate the process.
If the government had to step in and set up rules, they'd be forced to accept input from those annoying citizens they're supposed to represent.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
They are chicken - afraid that people find out what they are up to.
Any public servant doing this kind of stuff should be penalized.
William Binney: ...after he realized that the NSA is now openly trampling the constitution, says as he holds his thumb and forefinger close together. "We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state."
The phrase "the public interest" does not mean the same thing to Government officials and to the actual Public. It's a sort of catch-all reason for hiding information or bending rules or otherwise ignoring the (usually legitimate) wishes of a group or indeed of the populace.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
The delimiter page is not loading. Is our government blocking the story now?? This sucks in every way. Time to write to the local MP.
Governments represent Corporations not people.
The government will KILL every human being if it means satisfying a corporate interest.
Remember, corporations are people too, and if the public gets an interest in these talks, that could seriously damage the corporate bottom line, which is about as physical as you can get.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
We don't even pretend we're not all corrupt as fuck anymore...
Not even a song and dance about how its in our own best interest.
Has it always been this insanely corrupt? And we're just now noticing because of all the small media attention on things? Or is it actually getting worse?
Passing laws for big businesses and not letting anyone know the details? Why would he be doing that? Obviously it is corruption. Put this man in prison.
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
Your wasting your breath, at least half the people here know for certain that whenever government meets with anyone behind a closed door they are plotting against we the people. Closed door meetings have got nothing to do with speaking frankly and protecting sensitive commercial information. It a plot, a UN conspiracy...or something....but most of all it's an outrageous outrage that must be fought. Our method of attack is to buy plastic masks from our enemy, smash the windows of small merchants and steal their wares, and top it off by vandalising establishment web pages. Sure it's going to take a while to scorch the Earth where the establishment now stands, but overthrowing the status-quo is not the only thing we do, new releases don't just rip themselves you know.
Protesting against greed while wearing hollywood masks and shitting in the town square is going to be about as effective as flower power was at "solving" the same issues 40yrs ago. One of the largest internal migrations in the US was in the early 70's when the hippies left the cities in droves to establish communes that shunned political hierarchies and political alliances between members. Virtually none of the communes lasted more that a couple of years. Most people assume it was because of jelousy brought on by the "love thy neighbour" attitute to sex, but it was nothing of the sort. They failed because the lack of political structure created a power vacumn allowing the one slightly more agressive member of the group to rise to the top by brow beating individuals into submission one at a time, when that stopped working things got physical. Coincidently this was all around the same time that the Stanford prision experiments demonstrated that we all have an evil dictator lurking in our phyche just waiting for the opportunity to fill a political power vacum and we also all have a cowering slave in our phyche that given the right conditions will emerge and chose security over liberty.
In other words, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The mayor hides the crime rate
council woman hesitates
Public gets irate, but forgets the vote date
Weatherman complaining, predicted sun, it's raining
Everyone's protesting, boyfriend keeps suggesting
you're not like all of the rest.
Garbage ain't collected, women ain't protected
Politicians using, people they're abusing
The mafia's getting bigger, like pollution in the river
And you tell me that this is where it's at.
Woke up this moming with an ache in my head
Splashed on my clothes as I spilled out of bed
Opened the window to listen to the news
But all I heard was the Establishment's Blues.
Gun sales are soaring, housewives find life boring
Divorce the only answer, smoking causes cancer
This system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune
And that's a concrete cold fact.
The pope digs population, freedom from taxation
Teeny Bops are up tight, drinking at a stoplight
Miniskirt is flirting I can't stop so I'm hurting.
Spinster sells her hopeless chest.
Adultery plays the kitchen, bigot cops non-fiction
The little man gets shafted, sons and monies drafted
Living by a time piece, new war in the far east.
Can you pass the Rorschach test?
It's a hassle is an educated guess.
Well, frankly I couldn't care less.
- This Is Not A Song, Its An Outburst (AKA The Establishment Blues ); Rodriguez - 1970
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Okay
So what happens when someone submits a freedom if information request?
Besides being charged$10k to have the foi request actioned ..... Stamp duty my ass
Why do various governments and government institutions feel it's necessary to hide and keep secret these kinds of talks?
Just think - they have no issues talking about defense spending, health-care and so on in public, but when it comes to anti-piracy at all of a sudden has to be secret.
It's obvious that they're hiding things because they have to. They're doing things that violates both basic democratic rules and their mandate, maybe even taking bribes in the process. They gotta be stopped! - and fast!
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
What do you expect? a list of actions your government is willing to commit to and who was invited to a fancy party?
Politicians represent your interests, but only if there's no better alternative.
The only documents a government can say it's not in the public interest to release are ones related to war strategies and defense of the country. This only confirms what everyone already suspected; governments will go to war with their own people if corporations ask for it.
There is no other content... they just "redacted" it to make it appear that there was something substantial that's missing, when in fact they had nothing to begin with and just talk crap and everything is there and just want to be the net nanny capital of the world.
I neither a lawyer, nor Australian, but it's surprising that it's possible to redact because something relates to the "deliberative or consultative processes of the government", or for a right-to-privacy is invoked by a public servant *conducting business in their capacity as a public servant*. How can their be accountability without information?
Here in the US, there was a flap about Vice President Cheney's secret "Energy Task Force" talks, involving the oil industry he has such close ties to. Not sure what happened with that. So I guess the redaction strategy worked that time.
And, yes the redneck are responsible for INSISTING that Guns Be Holy and all that crap about "I needs to defend myself!" bollocks that ensures that people need guns in your society because everyone has guns in your society ("everyone" enough to make it a generalisation that is a reason to carry).
If those retards stopped worshipping their guns, you could remove 90% of the guns and there would be fewer deaths from guns.
If they're redacting the information from the talks, they must think "pirates" are terrorists.
Because the only excuse that's even vaguely valid for redacting government information is "national security", and even that gets applied with too broad a brush in most nations.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
As always, an important facet of any informed debate is comprehending all sides to a given issue. With that in mind, you can download the decision, as well as the rest of the documents, here (warning: 11.3Mb, pdf wrapped in rar). I'm assuming the following is the controversial bit:
(Copied manually and quickly, so don't take as gospel)
I see her point. As I'm sure we're all aware, there is a very vocal group of people who are against the idea of these talks occurring in the first place. The early stages of the talks could (and most probably do) contain aspects that are unreasonable and will not be present towards the resolution. These points could well be exploited by people who would like to see these talks not go ahead.
Think of it like couple counselling. The couple might start out angry and at each others throats, but that doesn't necessarily reflect how they feel about each other, and the compromises they're willing to make. If someone were to make the initial proceedings public, it would potentially send completely the wrong impression out to everyone. Anyone who is genuinely interested in the outcome of the counselling would prefer to hear about the latter stages.
Anyway, now you have the information, make up your own minds.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
What does the Australian government fear? And informed public?
The liberal policy is to say "No" to everything that Labor does, this will lose them a lot of votes.
Seems to have worked pretty well for the Republicans. Congresses approval is around 10%, yet half the population still supports this now reactionary political philosophy. Who's to say that Abbott cannot make ground out of contrarian hatred. After-all, plenty of people hate the Labor and the Greens, and Abbot has a large media complex that will back him all the way. A lie said enough times... just saying.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
It wouldn't be in the 'public interest' to release the information.
None of this is in the public interest.
Sounds to me like you have useless freedom of information laws down under.. I am pretty sure that it would require a threat to national security, or exposure of classified information, to get out the black marker, in America. Possibly the same here in Canada, and the UK, too.
Stop downloading pirated movies and music and other content controlled by restrictive copyrights. In the end they are probably right... they own the work and they can restrict its usage as they see fit. So just stop it. You know it is wrong
Instead free yourself from the corporate advertising that puts the desire in your mind in the first place. If you were not constantly bombarded by advertising on TV and in print, you wouldnt even know it existed. So just ignore it, dont watch it.
Get yourself a TV capture card to record TV to your computer. Find yourself an auto commercial skip software to playback without all the brainwashing. Skip over the pages in the news paper and magazines called "entertainment section". This section is filled with made up titalating stories about sex, alcohol and drug abuse just to capture your eyes anyways.
There is a ton of free and open music and video already on the Internet which is now approaching the quality of commercial entertainment. These laws are not really designed to be protecting what is already controlled by distributors, but rather to squash the channels of free and cheap distribution. For example, the death of mega-upload killed off a lot of completely legal quality content.
If you keep seeking out copyright controlled content by the big distributors, you are just playing into the hands of those who want all entertainment to be filtered through the limited channels of these same distributors.
Reality is that distribution is dirt cheap. It is a $0 cost endevour now, because the brunt of the cost is paid for by you already. I mean you pay for your ISP connection and the bandwidth requirements for distribution... don't you? So what do we even need distributors for? The only advantage an artist has of using a distributor is for big dollar advertising and a legal team for fighting off all means of cheap distribution.
Conclusion: If you want free movies and music... then download free movies and music and stop stealing the commercial stuff. Because if you keep stealing the controlled content, then you will find the free channels will all disappear.
“”it is firmly in the public interest to uphold the rights of individuals to their own privacy,” Purcell wrote.” Ha. So can we just have the IP address of the attendants?
Can a person program a new solution to a problem? Why should anyone be able to stop such a thing? -Richard Stallman