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

[Ben Fowler]

(Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs Ben Fowler <b1.fowler at student.qut.edu.au>)

On Wed, 26 May 1999, Anthony Towns wrote:

> 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 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.
> 
> Personally, the only thing I have against this bill is that it's
> censorship, and that I think censorship is fundamentally wrong. If
> you don't want to look a smut, don't look at smut. If you're sick of
> altavista giving you twenty links to pr0n for every relevant web page,
> use a different search engine. If you get sick of the guy in front of
> you in the labs looking at smut all the time, tell him he's a pervert
> and to do it at home.
> 
> 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.

AJ, as always, makes some excellent points.  I'm sure that the problem
with this legislation does not lie with it's _intent_, and that their
desire and efforts to restrict material that is refused classification is
not such a bad thing.  IMHO the leglation does still stink in practice. 

However, I do have a very big problem with the _way_ it's being done - it
does not take much of a stretch of the imagination to see the Government
abusing such a censorship framework to suppress popular opinion.  Indeed
some of the conservative lowlives running our country now are already
using dishonest methods to suppress dissent, for instance, punishing the
ABC with funding cuts for "being too hard on the Government", and
introducing VSU to silence students.

I don't have issues with the blocking of illegal material; I do however,
have major issues with a system that has the potential to allow wholesale
abuse by the Government of the day to suppress criticism.  One issue I
also find quite scary with the legislation is the "dob in your neighbour"
provision, which allows anyone to complain about content they deem
"offensive".

I personally feel that the intent is good, however the leglislation will
sink like a lead balloon under it's own weight - and make us all look like
complete idiots to the rest of the world at the same time.  Good one,
Senator Alston.

With apologies to the Liberal supporters amongst us...

- regards,

Ben.

[1].  This would have rate as one of the most politically brilliant stunts
I've ever seen.  With VSU, the Government gets to effectively silence its
most vocal critics.  What more, their rhetoric about individual "freedom" 
over the common good is actually quite convincing to a lot of people. This
also demonstrates the Liberals' belief in selfish individualism over the
aims and goals of the community and society in general.

--
 Ben Fowler, 2nd year BInfTech on the Wrong Side of the River.
   e-mail:       ben.fowler at humbug.org.au  b1.fowler at student.qut.edu.au 
   vanity page:  http://azure.humbug.org.au/~zuul/ 

 "I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused." -- Elvis Costello


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