Will there be any Aussies left next year?

Dark Elf · Dec 19, 2009

... next year, all Australian ISPs will be required to filter access to a government-supplied blacklist containing “refused classification” (RC) web content. That would include nasty stuff like child pornography, but also a broader range of content: fetishy sex, instruction in crime (such as euthanasia), any computer game not suitable for under 18s. The list will be partly generated by complaints from the public, and may include lists imported from overseas police departments.

While this is sold as a kid-friendly measure, to “improve safety of the internet for families”, it’s clearly nothing of the sort. A few thousand URLs hardly constitutes a national net nanny. The list would almost be laughable if only it was not mandatory and secret – unlike censorship decisions made in other media, blocked URLs will remain secret and expressly excluded from freedom of information requests. Just as worrying is the fact that once this list is in, a conga-line of special interests will be approaching the government to have their pet peeves added to the list. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine AFACT (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft) clamouring to have bittorrent trackers added, and several parliamentarians are on record calling for a ban on pro-anorexia sites and pornography in general.
Click to expand...

Source.

My boldface, because that line of reasoning would, by extension, pretty much make T-A off limits for the substantial chunk of our members that are Australian. This is the kind of stuff you guys shouldn't import from China.

See, this is why I voted Pirate. If you have an Australian equivalent, I suggest you people do the same. If not, Turbo Plasma Rifle charge on Capital Hill should be the best course of action.

Sjael · Dec 19, 2009

Dark Elf said:

See, this is why I voted Pirate. If you have an Australian equivalent, I suggest you people do the same. If not, Turbo Plasma Rifle charge on Capital Hill should be the best course of action.
Click to expand...

They do, as of quite recently.

Vorak · Dec 19, 2009

Well T-A is blocked by the public service already as a gaming site you cannot legitemately access this place at Parliament House, there is a work around but I'm not risking my job to check a forum.

Dark Elf · Dec 19, 2009

There are several orders of magnitude between disallowing access from a workspace computer and shutting out an entire country.

Vorak · Dec 19, 2009

Yeah but if any lists are carried across they'll start with the public service one.

Xiao_Caity · Dec 20, 2009

Sweet monkey-raping Christ! *swears incoherently for a few minutes*

Why do I sense the stench of Michael Atkinson in this? For fuck's sake! WE ARE ADULTS AND CAN MAKE OUR OWN BLOODY DECISIONS ABOUT WHAT WE PLAY AND WHAT WE SEE ON THE INTERNET! Jaysus H. CHRIST!

This kind of attitude really shits me off. A few parents don't bother to check the age restrictions on video games, we get denied an R-rating. So, what, a few people don't bother to filter what their kids get and suddenly we're denied half the internet? What the fuck is WRONG with these people?!?

*wanders off to plan the destruction of the political world, still swearing like a maniac*

DarkFool · Dec 20, 2009

Well that sucks. I think this forum is like half Aussie. It'll be like, me, Xz, DE, and He Who Loves Frigo's Pictures.

Philes · Dec 20, 2009

As a stout conservative (albeit from the USA), I'm going to enjoy formerly diehard liberals screaming about this. The individual screams from people halfway around the world are like popcorn for the soul.

Dark Elf · Dec 20, 2009

I would call myself liberal, but that would be liberal in the European sense of the word. I guess it's just one of the peculiarities of America that the liberals are the ones most intent on regulating everything.

Batmantis56 · Dec 20, 2009

Move countries? It'd be worth it.

Nothing more despicable than censorship.

Dark Elf · Dec 20, 2009

It's a small step towards tyranny, the kind that can easily take on a snowball effect if it wants to. It's just sad, though unsurprising, that the proponents have decided to use the "Think of the Children" rhetoric to reach their goals. There will always be ignoramuses that fall for that one.

DarkFool · Dec 20, 2009

Dark Elf said:

I guess it's just one of the peculiarities of America that the liberals are the ones most intent on regulating everything.
Click to expand...

I consider myself a liberal, but I don't support a lot of the regulation that your average liberal wants. I consider there to be something called "personal responsibility." It's an uncommon idea in this region.

Batmantis56 · Dec 20, 2009

Dark Elf said:

It's a small step towards tyranny, the kind that can easily take on a snowball effect if it wants to. It's just sad, though unsurprising, that the proponents have decided to use the "Think of the Children" rhetoric to reach their goals. There will always be ignoramuses that fall for that one.
Click to expand...

It's a much larger step than I think you surmise. I don't think there's any question of a snow ball effect.

I'd like to understand how people think sheltering children from reality or even healthy levels of fantasy is supposed to protect them. If anything it leaves them vulnerable and Naive to the unknown

Vorak · Dec 20, 2009

The Liberal Party of Australia is our conservative party oddly enough, its the Labor party that come up with stuff like the net censor.

Dark Elf · Dec 20, 2009

Again, it's not you that are odd, it's the Americans. By any traditional definition, Liberalism is the cause for freedom whereas Socialism is the vehicle for state control. Thus I have no clue as to why the American Democratic party keeps being referred to and refer to themselves as "Liberals", when in fact they are often anything but.

Xiao_Caity · Dec 20, 2009

I hate both the Labor and Liberal parties, I'm a staunch Greens voter here. Yes, yes, mock all you will, but at least they believe in personal responsibility for the individual and corporate responsibility for fuckers like Gunns. As long as they keep opposing the Pulp Mill, I will continue to vote for them.

(Seriously, I actually quite like it here in Launceston, and if the Pulp Mill goes through I'm going to have to move. My lungs are really sensitive to pollution, hence why I'm living here instead of Melbourne where I spent a decent chunk of my childhood. I do not want to move again. I like it here. FUCK THE PULP MILL! ... Okay, I'm done now, I swear I am, I just fucking hate the Nanny State that seems to be developing at the moment.)

Dark Elf · Dec 20, 2009

Green, you say?

Around these parts the Green parties have gone disconcertingly brown in later years, their representatives calling for "immediate action" which democracy, in their view, is too slow and cumbersome to handle. They want to couple this with a wholesale adoption of the Chinese one-child policy. In other words, Ecofascism at its very finest.

Charonte · Dec 20, 2009

Wasn't the pulp mill to be built just outside of Launceston and not in the suburbs themselves? I bloody hope it's out of the way a little, I already have to move their next year and don't want to be coughing all damned day.
Then again, when the one in Burnie was fully operational (which they're now closing completely) I wasn't so bad as long as I stayed outside a 100 metre radius as a kid. I'm a little healthier now, thankfully.

I don't like labor much either, but I'd much rather vote for them than some stuck up prig liberal leader. Liberal wont be conservative for long with capitalist retard #3 behind the wheel. Back to the Dark Ages, anyone?

Fear not though, DE. Should this come to pass I will personally build a leaf spring crossbow off of tot-fucking-se.com and proceed to murder the labor party.

magikot · Dec 20, 2009

Dark Elf said:

It's a small step towards tyranny, the kind that can easily take on a snowball effect if it wants to. It's just sad, though unsurprising, that the proponents have decided to use the "Think of the Children" rhetoric to reach their goals. There will always be ignoramuses that fall for that one.
Click to expand...

My friends and I do a social experiment to this effect every 5 years. We go around Boston trying to get 10,000 signatures to ban dihydrogen-monoxide from schools aka H20. Because the kids come in contact with it every day and it is found in carcinogens. First time we were just shy of 4000 signatures, last time we had 6500. Hopefully when we go again in 2 years we'll get the 10,000.

Helps that Massachusetts is one of the pioneers for Socialism and state control in the US.... I hate my fucking state....

Muro · Dec 20, 2009

Xiao said:

For fuck's sake! WE ARE ADULTS AND CAN MAKE OUR OWN BLOODY DECISIONS ABOUT WHAT WE PLAY AND WHAT WE SEE ON THE INTERNET! Jaysus H. CHRIST!
Click to expand...

What can you know, you're using logic!

So they're pretty much banning the whole Internet in Australia, eh? Well that doesn't remind me of this, not one bit.

There's only one reasonable thing one could do right now. Vorak, Tel, Xiao, Charonte. Grab a friend and you'll have a full tank crew, or just split up and use four tanks. You choose.

Log in or Sign up

Will there be any Aussies left next year?

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

Sjael New Member

Vorak Administrator Staff Member

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

Vorak Administrator Staff Member

Xiao_Caity New Member

DarkFool Nemesis of the Ancients

Philes Well-Known Member

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

Batmantis56 New Member

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

DarkFool Nemesis of the Ancients

Batmantis56 New Member

Vorak Administrator Staff Member

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

Xiao_Caity New Member

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

Charonte Member

magikot Well-Known Member

Muro Well-Known Member

Log in or Sign up

Will there be any Aussies left next year?

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

Sjael New Member

Vorak Administrator Staff Member

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

Vorak Administrator Staff Member

Xiao_Caity New Member

DarkFool Nemesis of the Ancients

Philes Well-Known Member

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

Batmantis56 New Member

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

DarkFool Nemesis of the Ancients

Batmantis56 New Member

Vorak Administrator Staff Member

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

Xiao_Caity New Member

Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

Charonte Member

magikot Well-Known Member

Muro Well-Known Member

Useful Searches