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Draconian Australian Research Law Hits Scientists

Posted by Soulskill on from the blunder-down-under dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The Australian government is pushing ahead with a draconian law placing "dual use" science (e.g. encryption, biotechnology) under the control of the Department of Defence. The Australian ACLU, Civil Liberties Australia, warns the law punishes scientists with $400,000 fines, 10 years in jail and forfeiture of their work, just for sending an "inappropriate" e-mail.

Scientists — including the academics union — warn the laws are unworkable despite attempted improvements, and will drive researchers offshore (paywalled: mirror here).

36 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. The stupid is strong with these people! by gweihir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they criminalize research and communication regarding IT security, they will soon be without it. That is basically suicide in today's Internet.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:The stupid is strong with these people! by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not so much "be without it", but more like "out of the loop with researchers in the field".

      That is beyond stupid for a Five Eyes nation. One would expect measures to draw researchers into the country. Not chase them away!

    2. Re:The stupid is strong with these people! by MrKaos · · Score: 2, Informative

      Any chance we can talk about the meta data laws while there is still a chance to stop it? I know it's my submission but there is a slim chance that maybe we can do something if enough people know http://slashdot.org/firehose.p... please please let there be some hope

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    3. Re:The stupid is strong with these people! by rtb61 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The reason for the law "The DTCA is intended to simplify trade between Australia, the US and the UK" that being imports from the US and UK. So yeah, it basically kills research in Australia on purpose, to force it into import only mode, to ensure those other two countries can buy primary resources and lots of land with funny money from two countries rapidly sliding into bankruptcy. Note the same political party is looking to raise university fees to US levels and open market the education loans. Australians are only meant to be servants for the future owners of Australia (after he made sure his daughter got a scholarship from a soon to be fully funded private university and a no work job and the person who tattled, to ensure they aligned with US styled freedom of information, was prosecuted). They did fund medical research though, but want to make big cuts universal health care, the rich only will get the use of Australian tax payer funded medical research.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    4. Re:The stupid is strong with these people! by gweihir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are not wrong on that. My impression is that governments are so afraid of their population, that they are willing to risk losing it all. Paranoids make the absolutely worst leaders, yet these seem to be what rises to the top.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  2. Re:when I think "Australia" by sectokia · · Score: 2

    The law is expected to be passed by the left labor and green senate, it appears to have by partisan support.

  3. Well, I guess they don't need to do any science... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Per a spokesweasel(in TFA): "Some academic research uses proliferation-sensitive controlled goods and technologies. While the sensitive items are used for legitimate civilian research by Australian researchers, they can also be used for the proliferation of military, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. "

    Notice anything odd? The word 'military' shows up along the usual trio of "nuclear, chemical, biological". Last I checked, the boundaries of 'military weapons' were very, very, broad, running the gamut from fancy-nuclear-power aerospace widgetry to relatively crude hand-fabricated small arms more or less loosely based on designs dating back to the first half of the 20th century, if not older.

    Is there some stricter definition of 'military weapons' that makes this slightly less ridiculous, or are they in fact export-controlling basically any tech you could conceivably integrate into a weapon in some fashion, including weapons already extremely widely available, adequately functional with downright crude technology, and otherwise utterly absurd to pretend are still within the reach of counter-proliferation efforts?

  4. Wouldn't it be nice by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 3, Insightful

    if there were some foundational document that codified your right to both military weapons and speech of all sorts, and prohibited the government from passing laws restricting either.

    1. Re:Wouldn't it be nice by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 2

      I can be as obscene as I want with whomever I want that's of voting age and associates with me freely of his or her own volition. In print, online, and in person. Just not over RF broadcasts.

    2. Re:Wouldn't it be nice by dryeo · · Score: 2

      And yet not once has the second amendment stopped your government from ignoring the Constitution that you referenced up the page.
      The British Monarch could assert her supremacy if she was doing it with the support of the people, eg an unpopular government that refused to call an election when their term ran out.
      The American people could assert their supremacy just by sitting down and refusing to serve the rich, not much need for guns though handy if the government sicked the troops on the strikers, which historically has failed to stop the government and the rich's hired goons.
      Back when the Constitution was written it was generally considered that a standing army led to tyranny and a militia was a better choice, so what used to be a requirement (free men owning and being proficient in arms) became a right.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    3. Re:Wouldn't it be nice by Pi1grim · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hei, Russia doesn't have second amendment, explicitly bans guns and yet, for some unknown reason they too have roving street gangs, political assasinations, gangs slaughtering entire households, but I'm pretty sure that if US were to cancel the second amendment and prohibit gun ownership, then school massacres and roving street gangs would dissapear. I mean, how can you buy a gun, if you are prohibited to own it. Gangs would be forced to use baseball bats and harsh language.

      Or, perhaps, it's not about gun ownership at all and much deeper problems are in play and prohibiting gun ownership is like slapping a plaster on a leper?

  5. Somebody in Australia wants a scientist exodus! by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Australian geeks and scientists: The weather is also nice in Silicon Valley, and they pay better. Do you really need another reason to leave?

    1. Re:Somebody in Australia wants a scientist exodus! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      But the U.S. government is even more retarded than its Australian counterpart.

    2. Re:Somebody in Australia wants a scientist exodus! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is that a joke? Why would educated aussies working in one of those fields want to go to the US?

      There are so many better options that suggesting the US is laughable. I'll stay in Aus anyday rather than go there. If I moved, there are about a dozen better options if not more.

      You keep pretending that USA is the height of humanity, burying your head in the sand and acting like an arrogant cunt works so well.

    3. Re:Somebody in Australia wants a scientist exodus! by prefec2 · · Score: 2

      In Europe we have great social security and we do not fight science (that much). Beside the Torys in the UK, we will not hunt you for your research. We have all kinds of weather and our food is much better. Ah yes, the content of your doctoral thesis belongs to you. Do you really need another reason to leave?

  6. New Zealand? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Meanwhile, the Kiwis are doing everything they can to build a prosperous biotechnology industry. The government has been heavily promoting a "knowledge-based economy" for nearly a decade. If you're working in Australia, trained in biotech, and would like to work with less tax, fear, and general oppression then why not leave the matrix and give NZ a go.

    1. Re:New Zealand? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I live in Dunedin, New Zealand.

      Right now, we are faced with the closure of one of the premiere biotech facilities in the South Island, Invermay, in spite of a backlash by the farmers, scientists, and people of the region, all in the name of budget.

      The country is rapidly turning into a right-wing system, we're being pummelled with fear and hate messages from our government ("Unemployed? It's not our fault for mismanaging the economy, it's not the banks fault for ruining the world economy, it's your fault because there are no jobs in the region!") Workers rights are being removed (we've just had the first employer of many back down from the now-legal removal of all of our breaks, because it suits them) at a high pace.

      There's little money being pumped into research, all publicly owned assets are being flogged off (It's a New Zealand fire sale! Everything must go!) in spite of massive public opposition.

      It's an ideological nightmare, and things are getting worse. Educated people are leaving because the pay and conditions here are shit.

      Think twice before coming here.

    2. Re:New Zealand? by meta-monkey · · Score: 2

      Absolutely. The people are wonderful, the climate's amazing, the country is beautiful. And oh, ho ho, the sheep, the sheep! The sexiest little fluffy...WOMEN I MEANT WOMEN!

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
  7. I must be reading it wrong by burtosis · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because it seems to criminalize a wide swath of legitimate civilian research. From TFA
    high-performance, neural, optical and fault-tolerant, computers,
    electronics,
    wavelength research (remember, wi-fi was ‘invented’ in Australia),
    heat-shielding,
    telecommunications,
    information security research,
    robotics,
    human, animal and plant pathogens, both bacterial and viral,
    fibre optics,
    cryptography.
    satellite technology.
    sensor technology.
    signal and image processing.
    composite materials, andthe list could go on and on.
    This effectively criminalizes half of all science related activity at colleges. It's not just the best and brightest it's literally asking the A ark to sail in some kind of reverse HHGTG parody.

    1. Re:I must be reading it wrong by complete+loony · · Score: 2

      CSIRO patented a few things related to Wi-Fi in the 90's. They like to claim that Wi-Fi wouldn't have existed without them.

      --
      09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
    2. Re:I must be reading it wrong by mcl630 · · Score: 2

      Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil invented spread-spectrum communications in 1942. It's used in WiFi, but I wouldn't call that "inventing WiFi".

    3. Re:I must be reading it wrong by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil invented spread-spectrum communications in 1942.

      That's Hedley... No, wait. It is Hedy Lamarr. Never mind.

  8. Smart politicians. by Dunbal · · Score: 2

    What this law actually does is drive any serious research out of Australia to other countries. Like say, China. Well done.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  9. The DSGL list contains processors 40 MHz !!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The The Defence and Strategic Goods List includea :

    " “Microprocessor microcircuits”, “microcomputer microcircuits” and microcontroller microcircuits, manufactured from a compound semiconductor and operating at a clock frequency exceeding 40 MHz;

    Note: 3A001.a.3. includes digital signal processors, digital array processors and digital coprocessors."

    See http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2013C00051
    CATEGORY 3 — ELECTRONICS, 3A001

    I'm speechless :-(

    contains processor or

  10. Same here in the USA by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The "Left" and the "Right" are both the "Same" - e.g. "the ruling class".
    Voters are just the "little people".

    Notice how power shifts from one to the other and they keep adding bricks, each to their own wall, but neither side takes down bits the other side has put up?

    Someday, the walls will meet and you will be on the outside...

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
    1. Re:Same here in the USA by spauldo · · Score: 2

      Which of the two political parties in America want to roll back Imperial Washington?

      Neither.

      Which of the two political parties wants an ever larger, ever more powerful government and which one has a large percentage of people who want to go to a government with limited powers as enumerated in the US Constitution?

      Both parties want a larger, more powerful government, despite what the libertarians say. When was the last time anyone actually made the government smaller? The only difference is what shape the larger government will be.

      I've generally found that "smaller government" and "less regulation" pretty much equates to "let the big corps do whatever they want." People who think it means "less social safety net" are forgetting Medicare part D and the other social programs put through during the Bush II administration.

      And "limited powers as enumerated in the US Constitution?" Nobody in power wants that. Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do.

      --
      Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach either, do tech support.
    2. Re:Same here in the USA by uninformedLuddite · · Score: 2

      and in great danger when crossing the road

      --
      The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
  11. Re:As an Australian... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    False. Australia is quickly turning to shit.

    I say this as an Australian still living in Australia.

  12. Re:As an Australian... by metrix007 · · Score: 2

    Agreed. The US is bad, but not as bad as Australia, which is why I left there.

    I can deal with overly eager racist cops, lack of decent social care, lack of regulation in the market, corruption and ignorance and apathy in the general populace.

    I'd much rather deal with that then the crazy censorship and rights-stripping laws the commonwealth countries are so eager to introduce.

    --
    If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
  13. What a great feel-good article! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm glad to hear that someone is trying to out-stupid *my* country.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  14. Re:Your analogy is slightly flawed by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 2

    Well in its defense, communism fails faster if you can't keep people from leaving.

  15. Or it's a recipie for selective enforcement by Uberbah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Whisteblowers have been sent to Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Penitentiaries under the odious Espionage Act at a higher rate under Obama than all previous presidents combined.

    But Petraeus, who casually flashed Specially Compartmented Information - a much higher classification than any of the Top Secret information released by Manning to Wikilieaks - just to impress his mistress, will only face probation.

    Or the cable operator who was sentenced to years in jail for carrying a Hezbollah tv channel, because it's on a State Department list of terror groups, while at the same time prominent politicians from both parties openly accepted large amounts of money from MEK to lobby on the group's behalf. A group also....on the State Departments list of terror groups.

    So we could see the same thing in Australia. Defense contractors will be free to skirt the law and sell to any shifty customer. People who annoy the state, though, will feel the full force of the law.

  16. Outraged x2 by countach · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm outraged by this law, sure.

    But I'm doubly outraged that I had to read on slashdot that this just passed the senate and there has been ZERO coverage of this in the mainstream media. Shame on you Fairfax, News Ltd and ABC. You went to sleep and betrayed us.

  17. The USA already did that, hence RSA by dbIII · · Score: 2

    The USA already did that for a while, hence RSA having to do their work offshore for many years due to utterly insane export restrictions.

  18. Re:Does fosters beer by dbIII · · Score: 2
    Most definitely. Fosters is a beer of revenge against Germany
    From http://www.jcu.edu.au/cgc/Beer...

    Pasteur’s anguish at the national crisis was magnified by the loss of his laboratory and the threat to his son's life. The war had jeopardised everything he cared about - Nation, Family and Science - and he was physically incapable of fighting back. This overwhelming feeling of impotence left him with an obsessive hatred of Germans and their nation and, by the end of the war, Pasteur had formulated a plan to avenge his nation’s honour.
    At the time, although Germany had become the world leader in industrial chemistry, her main export was beer. Indeed, as part of the reparations demanded of France, Germany had subsumed Alsace and Lorraine, where hops were the primary crop and much of France's own beer production had been based. German beer outsold local brews throughout most of central Europe because it tasted better and kept longer, and its continued sale in France irritated Pasteur intensely. He planned to destroy Germany’s primary export market by developing the world's best beer in France, a brew he dubbed 'the beer of revenge'.
    ...
    A brilliant young Belgian brewer, Auguste de Bavay, met Pasteur on one of his trips and adopted his methods before emigrating to Melbourne, where he was employed at the Victoria Parade Brewery. Because of the warmer temperatures in Australia, de Bavay had to adapt Pasteur's methods to top fermentation. To protect against spoilage, he added greater amounts of hops, and fermented to a higher alcohol content. The highly fertile soils and plentiful sunshine resulted in increased levels of protein in the barley, which caused clouding of the beer, so de Bavay replaced some of the barley malt with cane sugar. The resulting beer was that now characteristic of Australia: light in colour and body, but tasting strongly of bitter hops. This style, although correctly described as a 'bitter' in Australia, is usually mistaken for a lager in Britain.
    de Bavay was quickly promoted to chief brewer at Fosters, a position he held from 1894 to 1904

  19. Re:Satellite and cellular Internet by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 2

    Literalism is such an unpleasant thing. By RF broadcasts I am specifically referring to the thing that the FCC asserts authority over: high power transmissions from large centrally located antennas operating in a one-to-many mode. While the FCC regulates siting, frequency allocation, and power levels over point-to-point and telephone transmitters, it has never asserted authority over the content of the transmissions and wouldn't dare try.