correct. In Australia the Executive is part of the legislative branch of Government. There is no separation between them (unlike America where its Administration is not also in the parliament / congress)

The Issue was decided by a single judge, which means the likelihood of appeal to the full bench of the Federal court and the high court after that is 100%. I think this is a good day for Australian ISPs. And despite the whinging from AFACT it does not protect pirates since the copyright holders have had the mechanism of going to the court for a court order to name an ISP subscriber for years. They just elected not to use it and tried to bully subscribers with infringement notices. And any ISP that didnt pass on these notices were run over the coals by AFACT as this case has demonstrated. But what this case demonstrates is that AFACT is not above the law. However I can see the Government tightening the legislation at the end of this case making any decision by the high court moot when it gets reversed by the incompetent Conroy and his band of merry men

that may be true, but if the Executive branch of Government don't like what the Judicial branch has done then they will push through new legislation through the legislative branch of Government to overturn it. But it sounds better to allow people to believe we have proper separation of powers.

I concur. Into the wild Green yonder (considering at the time it was considered the end of the story) was a major let down. Especially with the limited time devoted to Fry and Leela's feelings for each other which has been a major story focus for the entire life of the series

It may be a small crowd but when you consider who is in that crowd it makes the statement even more damning. Consider the fact that the World's biggest Luddite held the post a number of years prior to it going to Conroy. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/03/28/this_man_must/

You dont need to talk to a customer service rep personally (potential embarrassment) when ordering a porn channel on cable TV (At least in Australia). Any channel packages, including Adults only channels can be ordered via the automated phone menu system without conversation.

In country's like Australia they do (pay a monthly fee, but only get a certain number of GBs for that fee) and I believe the number of countries adopting that metered approach is growing

Microsoft have been pushing subscription based sales (activations, and licensing that expires after 12 months). Other products like Quicken do it successfully. However for Microsoft to be able to force this profitable ongoing revenue stream down its enterprise customer's throats it will need them to actually USE the product. Vista Flopped because it was too hard to remotely support (UAC being on by default made it very difficult to configure for RDP or Remote assistance, etc.) over an enterprise network. It made mundane tasks, excessive chores and meant a large cost for support that never existed with XP. My own employer developed an image for Vista for customer's environments before scrapping the idea as unworkable. Simply put only through OEM licenses were Vista used and at the first chance, our company went back to XP for our customers and we still use it today. Windows 7 doesnt look like it will be much better (from my early looks over the Beta)

So am I, but it is embarrassing to share the faith with some of the clowns that think this it is their duty to impose God on the world. I dont blame Senator Conroy for this as much as I blame Senator Fielding whom is the puppetmaster of this law. Conroy is just a puppet

The police aren't charged with investigating civil complaints. However under the australian Copyright Act distribution of pirated material has both civil and criminal penalties. Thats irrelevant however, since the reason that these complaints are being forwarded on to police is because AFACT are demanding that iiNet hand over private information identifying which customer belongs to this IP (at the time of the alleged infringement). However under Australian privacy law, ISPs can only be compelled to hand over this information with a court order.... Its the same BS, that MPAA and RIAA try in the USA, mostly without success.