I'm Aussie, and I oppose the filter, but I don't think this protest is going to help.
Despite being a westernised democracy, the direction the government has taken over Internet censorship has not shocked me. We may become the laughing stock of the Western world with this stance. But we are not alone in looking at censorship - Wikipedia has an interesting map of Internet Censorship around the world - and I think it's only going to get tougher in other countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship
We are also famous for appointing Richard Alston, who the Register dubbed 'the world's biggest Luddite', as Minister of the Digital Economy. While in office, Alston famously tried to outlaw any online gambling whatsoever for Australian citizens, opposed the rollout of broadband, and wanted to make people legally responsible for anything they put on the net that was deemed not suitable for children (as decided by the police).
Anyway, I wrote about this last week - but it didn't make it past firehose. For those that are interested:
http://slashdot.org/submission/1169966/Australias-net-censorship-and-Operation-Titstorm?art_pos=7
or direct to the blog: http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2784&blogid=10
It appears the Guardian has just parsed the legislative process in a strange way to make it look like the Home Office has changed its position when it in fact hasn't.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm Aussie, and I oppose the filter, but I don't think this protest is going to help. Despite being a westernised democracy, the direction the government has taken over Internet censorship has not shocked me. We may become the laughing stock of the Western world with this stance. But we are not alone in looking at censorship - Wikipedia has an interesting map of Internet Censorship around the world - and I think it's only going to get tougher in other countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship We are also famous for appointing Richard Alston, who the Register dubbed 'the world's biggest Luddite', as Minister of the Digital Economy. While in office, Alston famously tried to outlaw any online gambling whatsoever for Australian citizens, opposed the rollout of broadband, and wanted to make people legally responsible for anything they put on the net that was deemed not suitable for children (as decided by the police). Anyway, I wrote about this last week - but it didn't make it past firehose. For those that are interested: http://slashdot.org/submission/1169966/Australias-net-censorship-and-Operation-Titstorm?art_pos=7 or direct to the blog: http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2784&blogid=10
It appears the Guardian has just parsed the legislative process in a strange way to make it look like the Home Office has changed its position when it in fact hasn't.