Australia May Introduce Site Blocking To Prevent Copyright Infringement

Bismillah writes: The conservative Coalition government in Australia is on the verge of introducing legislation requiring ISPs to block sites alleged of copyright infringement. Details of the bill have not yet been published, but it is expected to be sent to Parliament this week.

Comments

Re:Australian here

[Harlequin80]

They have moved a long way from where they started. Originally they were a liberal party. Really they shifted to being a truly conservative party under John Howard. I think the title of his auto-biography sums it up "Lazarus Rising"

From their own site.

In 1944, the Liberal Party of Australia was founded after a three-day meeting held in a small hall not far from Parliament House in Canberra. The meeting was called by the then Leader of the Opposition (United Australia Party) Robert Menzies. Robert Menzies had already served as Prime Minister of Australia (1939-41), but he believed that the non-Labor parties should unite to present a strong alternative government to the Australian people. Eighty men and women from 18 non-Labor political parties and organisations attended the first Canberra conference. They shared a common belief that Australians should have greater personal freedom and choice than that offered under Labor’s post-war socialist plans. Robert Menzies believed the time was right for a new political force in Australia - one which fought for the freedom of the individual and produced enlightened liberal policies.

In his opening address at that meeting, he said: ...what we must look for, and it is a matter of desperate importance to our society, is a true revival of liberal thought which will work for social justice and security, for national power and national progress, and for the full development of the individual citizen, though not through the dull and deadening process of socialism.
It is often said that Robert Menzies stood for the ‘forgotten people’ of Australia; those mainstream Australians whose goals, needs and aspirations had been ignored by Government.

On October 16, 1944, the name The Liberal Party of Australia was adopted, uniting the many different political organisations. Two months later, at the Albury Conference, the Party’s organisational and constitutional framework was drawn up.

The name Liberal was chosen deliberately for its associations with progressive nineteenth century free enterprise and social equality. By May 1945 membership of the Liberal Party had swelled to 40,000.

Re:Australian here

[TapeCutter]

Neither side actually wants to implement this stuff, the only reason either party bring up these ideas and have long running inquiries is to buy the votes of independent senators on other matters, particularly those senators from the far right minority parties such as "family first". Even if Brandis pushed a bill thru the lower house the senate will drag out voting on it until the next election and then start all over again, with a new set of nutjob independents. The same pattern has repeated itself every election cycle for the last 20yrs, longer if you count video recorders and photocopiers. No matter who is in power the govt always plays bad cop on this issue, the opposition always play good cop because they cannot push legislation thru the lower house and therefore have little to offer in exchange for said senator(s) votes on other matters.

I made the same prediction about Conroy's filter and most of slashdot laughed - this proposal will go nowhere and be will forgotten before the next election, especially now that we have a communications minister with a functioning brain and his eye on the top job.

Makes it hard to pick who to vote for.

Yes, but now you know who to vote against in the senate. :)