Comment Internet Censorship (Score 2) 272
I dunno where the original poster got the idea that we Australians didn't know about this censorship business. It was, and has been, most prominent in the press for the last few months.
The Independent senator (from Tasmania by the way) the conservative government was grovelling to got what he wanted and then said he wouldn't vote for the new GST (another party did in any case). Nevertheless he's now irrelevant as he doesn't hold the balance of power as of 1 Jul 99. The perfect example of hero to zero in one second flat.
In regards to the actual legislation, its basically a problem for the ISP faternity as they have to try and filter out material WHEN IT IS TECHNICALLY FEASIBLE TO DO SO. That is difficult enough for them at their own servers but a major drama for material coming in from outside sites. Once the ISPs are told to bar some site it will simply spring up somewhere else. An example of this difficulty was the list of British spooks posted a month or so ago. In the end the British government gave up (after two court orders) as it was pointless trying to find out all the places where the list had been posted to.
I wouldn't get too worked up about it for the time being. The law itself will no doubt be challenged in due course so lets just take a big deep breath and worry about something else.
The Independent senator (from Tasmania by the way) the conservative government was grovelling to got what he wanted and then said he wouldn't vote for the new GST (another party did in any case). Nevertheless he's now irrelevant as he doesn't hold the balance of power as of 1 Jul 99. The perfect example of hero to zero in one second flat.
In regards to the actual legislation, its basically a problem for the ISP faternity as they have to try and filter out material WHEN IT IS TECHNICALLY FEASIBLE TO DO SO. That is difficult enough for them at their own servers but a major drama for material coming in from outside sites. Once the ISPs are told to bar some site it will simply spring up somewhere else. An example of this difficulty was the list of British spooks posted a month or so ago. In the end the British government gave up (after two court orders) as it was pointless trying to find out all the places where the list had been posted to.
I wouldn't get too worked up about it for the time being. The law itself will no doubt be challenged in due course so lets just take a big deep breath and worry about something else.
