Australians can't be motivated from within because our media is working against us by promoting the governments case or ignoring the issue altogether.
I am concerned that the legacy media industries (who have highly concentrated ownership) may have acted together to support the bill out of self-interest. It would kill off what they may view as a competing industry. Perhaps the ACCC or some other organization with juristiction in this area should investigate this.
I hope there is an Australian political solution to this crisis. However, if all else fails in the next few months I have some proposals on ways the international community might assist the cause.
Three ways non-australians could assist political change:
1)Australia is extremely dependent on commodities.
So boycott Australian goods and tell somebody why you are doing it, perhaps an Australian embassy or trade organisation. Lobby local politicians to impose trade sanctions. Effectively our new net censorship infringes on YOUR RIGHTS to conduct Internet commerce with Australia so why not get us back. I suspect this legislation will place us in breach of some international trade agreements anyway.
2)Australians hate to be perceived as backward rednecks.
Boycott Australian films and culture - protest outside Australian film screenings. Why should George Lucas make the next Star Wars in a country that doesn't even guarantee freedom of speech - send him an email.
3)Australians love sport.
Don't buy tickets for Sydney 2000. Don't attend sporting events involving Australia - if you do, take banners protesting against net censorship and make yourselves heard.
There was no public debate on this stupid legislation in Australia. It was snuck in to buy a vote from a a morals campaigner so a new tax could be introduced and will probably be overturned by the next government before it is ever put into effect.
I believe our politicians think the Web and the Internet are the same thing so although Slashdot might be blacklisted we should still be able to FTP or email kernel sources.
I don't think there will be many people left to download linux after the cultural revolution. Without freedom of speech that is where we are headed.
Still if we had a true democracy, shit like this wouldn't have passed into law in the first place.
Your freedoms are only percieved freedoms, you are at the mercy of special interests, business and governement like nowhere else in the world.
Our lack of a contitutuionally guaranteed set of rights hasn't stopped us from having a free, safe and largely uncensored society. I think Asimov said that 'Violence was the last resort of the incompetent' - if you need a guarantee to carry guns to feel safe there must be something fundamentally wrong with your society.
Our challenge in Australia is that people are charactising Internet Cencorship as a fight to protect children. Unfortunately it is really a fight to buy a vote and the real effects could be to lose jobs and opportunities for our children.
Why do children need to be on the Internet anyway - at their level of education a library is a much better resource for learning.
I think most Delphi developers are so happy with Delphi they would rather have their clients reboot several times a day due to an inferior platform than use gcc.
That locks an enourmous number of companies out of Linux because its not the Office suites that are the issue. It is the billions of dollars of custom software and inhouse apps - the business logic - not the office fluff that will hold the Linux explosion back.
If they could port the VCL to use either QT or GTK as a compile option would be nice. Also we need the BDE.
Lets not get political about Redhat. On balance they have been good for linux and contribute a lot to the community.
I use Debian where possible because I like it - it is simple (even elegant). I had to use Redhat last week and was less productive - not Windows-like unproductive, just less so. I might also have been less comfortable using BSD or Solaris, two systems I have a lot of respect for.
Redhat have also been instrumental in getting Linux in the door. Nobody noticed when the dialup PC installed by the ISP went from Redhat 4.2 to Debian 2.1 - it rocked my world but who else gives a damn. What people noticed was the speed and the stability of Linux. They noticed Oracle, Samba, Apache and Squid.
Slashdot Mirror
Australians can't be motivated from within because our media is working against us by promoting the governments case or ignoring the issue altogether.
I am concerned that the legacy media industries (who have highly concentrated ownership) may have acted together to support the bill out of self-interest. It would kill off what they may view as a competing industry. Perhaps the ACCC or some other organization with juristiction in this area should investigate this.
I hope there is an Australian political solution to this crisis. However, if all else fails in the next few months I have some proposals on ways the international community might assist the cause.
Three ways non-australians could assist political change:
1)Australia is extremely dependent on commodities.
So boycott Australian goods and tell somebody why you are doing it, perhaps an Australian embassy or trade organisation. Lobby local politicians to impose trade sanctions. Effectively our new net censorship infringes on YOUR RIGHTS to conduct Internet commerce with Australia so why not get us back. I suspect this legislation will place us in breach of some international trade agreements anyway.
2)Australians hate to be perceived as backward rednecks.
Boycott Australian films and culture - protest outside Australian film screenings. Why should George Lucas make the next Star Wars in a country that doesn't even guarantee freedom of speech - send him an email.
3)Australians love sport.
Don't buy tickets for Sydney 2000. Don't attend sporting events involving Australia - if you do, take banners protesting against net censorship and make yourselves heard.
There was no public debate on this stupid legislation in Australia. It was snuck in to buy a vote from a a morals campaigner so a new tax could be introduced and will probably be overturned by the next government before it is ever put into effect.
I believe our politicians think the Web and the Internet are the same thing so although Slashdot might be blacklisted we should still be able to FTP or email kernel sources.
I don't think there will be many people left to download linux after the cultural revolution. Without freedom of speech that is where we are headed.
Still if we had a true democracy, shit like this wouldn't have passed into law in the first place.
Let Linux finish what the DOJ started.
Darwinian computing suggests GPLed software will shit on everything in the long run - and it already does for most things.
Your freedoms are only percieved freedoms, you are at the mercy of special interests, business and governement like nowhere else in the world.
Our lack of a contitutuionally guaranteed set of rights hasn't stopped us from having a free, safe and largely uncensored society. I think Asimov said that 'Violence was the last resort of the incompetent' - if you need a guarantee to carry guns to feel safe there must be something fundamentally wrong with your society.
Our challenge in Australia is that people are charactising Internet Cencorship as a fight to protect children. Unfortunately it is really a fight to buy a vote and the real effects could be to lose jobs and opportunities for our children.
Why do children need to be on the Internet anyway - at their level of education a library is a much better resource for learning.
Delphi would change everything for Linux.
I think most Delphi developers are so happy with Delphi they would rather have their clients reboot several times a day due to an inferior platform than use gcc.
That locks an enourmous number of companies out of Linux because its not the Office suites that are the issue. It is the billions of dollars of custom software and inhouse apps - the business logic - not the office fluff that will hold the Linux explosion back.
If they could port the VCL to use either QT or GTK as a compile option would be nice. Also we need the BDE.
Lets not get political about Redhat. On balance they have been good for linux and contribute a lot to the community.
I use Debian where possible because I like it - it is simple (even elegant). I had to use Redhat last week and was less productive - not Windows-like unproductive, just less so. I might also have been less comfortable using BSD or Solaris, two systems I have a lot of respect for.
Redhat have also been instrumental in getting Linux in the door. Nobody noticed when the dialup PC installed by the ISP went from Redhat 4.2 to Debian 2.1 - it rocked my world but who else gives a damn. What people noticed was the speed and the stability of Linux. They noticed Oracle, Samba, Apache and Squid.
Linux won and Redhat played a part in it.