[H-GEN] Alston's censorship bill has passed

[Jason Henry Parker]

(Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs Jason Henry Parker <jasonp at uq.net.au>)

Anthony Towns <aj at azure.humbug.org.au> writes:

> (Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs Anthony Towns
> <aj at azure.humbug.org.au>)

> I'm honestly not at all convinced by the "technical" arguments
> against this bill. Sure, restricting access to all offensive
> material is impossible, but, at least ttbomk, that's not what they

In that case, I'll proceed from the premise that it is impossible.

The Government's opinion is that impossibility is no excuse for doing
nothing, and that what is not possible today may, in fact, be possible
tomorrow.  The legislation[5] is designed to reflect this by:

 o not requiring the impossible when filtering content; and
 o being open and flexible by not mandating the use of any particular
   technology[1].

> require ISPs to do. And sure, restricting access is more onerous
> than not, but, well, so is keeping your kitchen clean when you're
> trying to run a restaurant.

And this is one of my primary objections to the Bill.  I don't think
it is the responsibility of ISPs to be filtering or removing content
(it should be done by parents[2]), nor is it the responsibility of Joe
Bloggs next door to make submissions to the ABA that my website is
somehow offensive (if anyone should be deciding what's censored, it
should be censors; at least they're trained to be objective).

If it is somehow feasible to monitor content, then why is the OFLC not
doing it as they do for films, books and other publications?  The
obvious answer is that the Government recognises the task as Herculean
but does not want to be seen as doing nothing[3].  The problem with
action being driven by members of the public is that they typically do
not understand the criteria on which content is classified; we'll see
many calls for banning of material that would only earn a M or R
rating in the offline world.  If the majority of submissions to the
ABA ask for even mildly objectionable material to be `banned'[4], then
that will affect the range of outcomes.

Australians are *not* known for their tolerance of alternative
viewpoints.  The danger here comes not really from Big Brother, but
Mom and Pop.  It may be the case that apathy will stop many Joe
Publics from ratting on you to the ABA, but the Government has passed
this bill to win votes and handed control of what gets reviewed to
anyone who wants it.

That said, however, I'm finding it hard to get *too* worked up[6]
about the bill itself---we all knew the Government would have a crack
at this sooner or later, and I'm more than confident that the system
will collapse under its own weight and/or be completely unusable.
What I *will* be fighting tooth and nail (just as soon as I know how)
is all the wannabe Lifesavers looking after all those Surfing minors.

Jason, who's really just annoyed that someone beat him to the punch
       submitting the story to Slashdot.  :)

[1] : Which isn't so bad, at least we can get a few hundred more cheap
      Linux/FreeBSD/whatever firewalls in place.  :)

[2] : Since this is pretty much a `save the wee tur^H^H^Hchildren'
      (STR) exercise, I've used `parent'.  Substitute boss, teacher,
      warden, whatever as you see fit.

[3] : By Joe Bloggs?  Or by Harradine?  Personally, I think the former
      is more likely.

[4] : Of course, nothing is ever _banned_ in Australia.  It's just
      `refused classification'.  It just so happens you're not allowed
      to look at stuff that has been refused a classification.  How
      perfectly euphemistic.

[5] : Of course, the EFA has a wonderful set of links to copies,
      analyses, and of the legislation in question.

[6] : I'm too busy being upset at Senator Alston's *other* fsckup of
      the day.  Grrrr.

-- 
`` "There's no telescreen!" [Winston] could not help ____  
murmuring.  "Ah," said the old man, "I never had one \ _/__
of those things.  Too expensive.  And I never seemed  \X  /
to feel the need of it, somehow." ''NetHack:  PVCTWH    \/ 

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