SillyDog701

[richard mitnick]

Of interest to those in Australia:

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20081226/ ... net_filter

>>RSM

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[James]

Hmmm... a filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by the government — mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism. What a concept. And while I understand the perceived dangers to personal freedom of speech that such a filter would bring into play, somehow I think the benefits would outweigh the feared outcome. And I've a hunch that were a democratic government to try and block more than the above, all hell would break loose. But hey... let's let every scumbag have his day on the net...right? Until one's child is raped or is wife killed by some pervert, I can imagine that civil libertarians would be up in arms over such an intrusive policy.

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[Antony]

Basically, I see this as extremists versus extremists, as well as double standards of the Government.

There are very religious people who want to stop other people from access material they or their religion condemns. Well, the other end of extremists? The freedom advocacy group, I don't think I need to address much.

Hmmm... a filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by the government — mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.

I see this as Government's public excuse or official statement if you prefer to call it that way. The thing is, do you believe (any) government's "official statements"?

Further on, there's a real situation. Australia Government has been calling Japanese inhumane of killing whales. Australia Government slaughters kangaroos (official excuse: to control the population), and even stomp baby kangaroos by some.

The current Australia Government has been, on a number of official occasions, complained to Chinese Government on their internal internet filtering.

Until one's child is raped or is wife killed by some pervert, I can imagine that civil libertarians would be up in arms over such an intrusive policy.

That's a good point. Except I don't see blocking internet sites would prevent this from happening. People would find a way to get into material they want.

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[Mandrake]

See No Clean Feed and GetUp! for important information on this issue.

There's massive public uproar over the issue including public demonstrations and ad campaigns being run. This filter also needs to be approved by the Senate, but since both the Liberal-National coalition and the Greens are against the filter the Labor party likely won't have the majority needed to get it approved.

But still, we cannot be complacent. I encourage all the Australians reading this to contact Senator Conroy and let him know that filtering the Internet is just not acceptable! The minister's contact details can be found on the No Clean Feed website.

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