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

David Jericho davidj at in4free.com.au
Wed May 26 20:21:46 EDT 1999


(Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs David Jericho <davidj at in4free.com.au>)

On Wed, May 26, 1999 at 11:45:29PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:

> I wonder if they reimburse Pizza companies for the extra staff they
> have to hire because they're drivers can't legally go at 120km/h to do
> their deliveries. I wonder if they pay damages to restaurants whom they
> shut down because they can't get rid of their rat infestation.

Case example. Dominos in NY, USA. They _told_ their drivers to drive
in excess of the speed limits and run red lights. As it turned out, 
they paid more in covering accidents on company cars and drivers 
hospitalization than they would have lost through slower business. [0]

> If it's a legal requirement, it's a legal requirement. You don't get
> reimbursement or damages if you can't toe the line.

Totally understood, but notice Telstra kept mighty quiet on this?

To give you an idea of why it miffs me so, that to afford more bandwidth
we've gone satellite. This is to avoid paying telstra for their excessive
charges.

We get billed for backchannel. Fair enough, it's not much. But now that we
recieve our bandwidth from outside the country, we'll have to employ someone
just to do the filtering. Assume average QLD income, $36,000 a year. Wow, our
savings from the satellite link have just been wipped. May as well go back
to Telstra, let them do the censorship and pay for that traffic.

> That doesn't seem unreasonable. We have multiple classes like that
> everywhere anyway -- in cinemas, airports, restaurants, public
> transport. We don't (at least, nominally) let kids drink, smoke or
> have sex. Society's very ageist like that.

Yes, but then it's easy to do that. Do you think Ma and Pa and going to pay
for a second account just so Billy can surf "safely". Heck, I know enough
parents that rented R movies for their children and bought them grog.

> 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.

But you're comparing apples to oranges. 

If I as David's Pizzera have a dirty kitchen, people get sick, I can get
sued and loose business because people no longer eat because they may get 
sick. Nothing to do with the law there. It'd happen anyway. Even in Asia, 
they may have dead dogs floating through sewers in the open street, but
at least their kitchen holds up to certain standards that aren't government
enforced[1]

If I as David's ISP allow access to pron, well gee pa, look at the womans big..

In anycase, if Singapore couldn't pull the net censorship thing off, Australia
hasn't a chance in the world[2].

In anycase, I'll be setting up a pre-paid anonymizer service in the states
offering anonymizer style https browsing. Filter that! [3]

> And don't get me started about all the crap about "You're all immoral
> child pornographers!". Or that the only group willing to stand up for
> freedom of speech in Australia is the Eros foundation.

Oh you're just... <duck> <g>

[0] Useless trivia: Dominos in NY during this period lost 3 company cars a night. Then again, in a city of 20 million, that's nothing.

[1] Try KL in Malaysia for an example of this. Bangkok and Hanoi maybe too much
of a culture shock.

[2] Having lived there, and co-sys oped a BBS with file quotas... no, the
censorship definitely doesn't work. If people want it, they'll get it.

[3] Anyone want to jump on board with me? :)

-- 
David Jericho
          

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