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Australia Pushes Ahead With Website Blocking In Piracy Fight

Posted by samzenpus on from the shut-it-down dept.

angry tapir writes As part of its crackdown on unauthorized downloading of copyright material, the Australian government will push ahead with the introduction of a scheme that will allow rights holders to apply for court orders to force ISPs to block websites. (Previously Slashdot noted that the Australian government had raised such a scheme as a possibility).

5 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. This is a good thing. by GloomE · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This way they will end up with actual evidence of how useless these schemes are.

    1. Re:This is a good thing. by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Never underestimate a government's ability to keep doggedly charge forward with a policy even in the face of obvious failure. After all, we've been conducting a "war on poverty", "war on drugs", and more recently, a "war on terror" for many years without effective results. No, they'll just claim that they're not getting enough funding to do a proper job, or that new laws are needed to close loopholes.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  2. Re:Fucking Morons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Don't worry, this is Australia... They'll just make it illegal to pay for an encrypted anonymous proxy or vpn service ;)

  3. This will not end with blocking piracy websites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Blocking piracy websites isn't the endgame here. The bigger picture here is using the guise of piracy and the clout of media rights holders to force all ISP's to implement a system capable of blocking the whole of Australia from accessing specified content. Pair this with enforcing all records to be held for a minimum of two years and the Australian government has just staged a coup on the online community. With these two moves they can block and track anything in the future as they introduce ever restrictive laws. This isn't a move to prevent piracy, it's a thinly veiled step towards government enforced censorship of the entire internet within the country, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership will only hasten this.

  4. Re:Fucking Morons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No one. Murdoch's control of the media is what got the current government in power. So they just do what he wants. Doesn't have to buy off anything.