It only applies to sites hosted in Oz, so this will be the nail in the coffin of their hosting companies/datacentres as people move to servers hosted elsewhere.
Australia is the new China...
Holland thinking about it, the UK starting to implement it...
Big Brother is upon us. End of free speech and freedom of expression.
Censorship is never good for any citizen. Not even when it's done to keep the worst of the worst off the interwebz (read: Child Pr0n, terrorism, etc), the end result is the censorship of perfectly legitimate pages and the silencing of political opposition.
Don't trust your government, they don't trust you.
Edit: btw, how is this censorship going horribly wrong? This is EXACTLY what it's supposed to do.
Well in theory that's what censorship IS, but it's not what the idea was designed for. It's just that it's getting taken way too far because of the stupidly political correct age we live in.
You're not even allowed to run the risk of offending someone because they'll sue you for it and no company wants to be sued for it. This is just the government pre-empting the law suits and saving people the hassle.
There will be a revolution though. Eventually everyone is going to get sick of not being able to do or say anything. I'm not saying that actual offensive sites should be allowed or that any sort of offensive behaviour should be condoned, but as long as it's not hurting anyone, what people do and see should be at their own discretion. We have the ability to switch off if we don't like something.
I certainly don't want to live in such a bland world where everyone likes the same stuff and that everything everyone says and does is PG13 and under.
Actually, this is exactly what it was designed for. It's simply not what our governments want to have us believe it'll be used for.
In the end, if there is a way to gain more power, the ones in power will utilize it. Censorship is perfect for the task. What the public doesn't know, the public won't hold against you.
I agree with your comment(s). I hate the big brother thing going on and the more they try to implement, the more I'll rebel against it. All we need is a majority of people to do so with me and they'll have to drop it. This is not a dictatorship.
It's a link to a censorship list that's one of the banned links. Am I being stupid when I ask what's the point in a censorship list if no-one's allowed to know what's on it?
Anybody know where this blacklist is? I want to create a page with a link to ALL of those sites, just to show that some people really couldn't give a toss about stupid poxy fake rules (Even if I host it on an Australian server, they can't come after me. International (lack-of) relations FTW)
No but can't they just request the host to remove it. The hosting company will listen to cencorship laws over you. If indeed that's what the problem is.
Wrong. Oh so wrong.Those 650 or so MPs don't actually have to listen to what the people think. They're MEANT to, but due to the way party politics works over here it is rare to see it. More often than not it's the ruling party's stance on the issue that eventually gets put into Law, not that of (even the majority of) the people. And of course, since the Police etc are upholders of said law there's very little you can do to stop it, I'm afraid. (Short of electing someone else, but that won't happen for a while yet)
I realise they don't when they're supposed to, however if there's 35-40 million (majority) of people, if we all rebel they will have to make changes.
I'm really done with Labour and the rubbish rules. What's annoying is that I haven't came across one 'real' leader of a political party. By real, I mean a normal person that has real world shit to deal with... it's a bloody farse.
I think we should start the "Emo Party". With the manifesto of
"To portray ourselves as real people with real shit to deal with, we'll talk openly of our insecurities, sexual kinks, wayward years in a youth, and childhood traumas we never got over".
I do agree with you though, at the last election I really wanted shot of Labour - I felt it was my duty to the world to rid them from power - but who to vote for:
Conservatives? They supported all of Labours most evil hair brained plans with a leader so un-charismatic I cant even remember who it was;
Lib Dems? If they couldnt take power as the first major party not to support the war then maybe having an alchoholic who didnt give a damn provided he earned a good salary was a bad idea.
I believe in democracy, consequently, I really don't like the system we have over here.
But in relation to the point. The danger with Censorship is clearly laid out with this case. Who decides what should or should not be censored. How do they go about justifying it to society as a whole and most importantly who polices the police?
Thin end of the wedge of Authoritarianism, (as also demonstrated by our own government for ever expanding reasons).
Therein lies the princple difference between true democracy and the reprasentative democracy that we have here.
In a true democracy every decision would be put to the public vote and the majority opinion upheld no matter what the outcome. It is of course, completely impracticable so we rely on a form of democracy where our polititians stand up and say "this is what I pledge to do, and what principles I stand for. Past that point, voting for me is a case of putting faith in me to do what you would choose to do on your behalf". All well and good for as long as they do what they said they would and honour the contract of our voting for them. However, that is very often not the case in practice.
I was meaning the average kinda person that has bills and a small income, that struggles to meet the bills. The kinda person that gets fined for doing 32mph in a 30 while that spotty kid in a stolen Nova with no insurance get's a slap on the wrist because he didn't speed (if he's even caught), where the police (the laws they uphold) are on the side of the citizen... although I'll happily join the emo party.