Fwd: [clug] EFA? Rant/Response

Mon Sep 24 00:23:29 GMT 2007

Cluggers

unlike others i do not believe this should be taken to private discussion.
the issues discussed are both relevant and important to the membership of
this list.

this bill if enacted can alter the structure of the internet for
australians. its not just the issue
of if the bill should be proscribing or prescriptive.

if i (a pure legal layman) am reading this proposal correctly then;

in its current form this bill could cause a site to be effectively taken
down for containing
a link to a site that contains material that a civilian operative feels ( a
subjective measure
affected by personal agendas and beliefs) may potentially, at some time in
the future be
considered to be inciting or condoning a crime that at the time he makes his
decision is
not a crime.

there is a token passing reference to terrorism in the title only of the
bill. the
bill itself refers to _all_ commonwealth offences -  thats a long list of
things you might speak
about in a way that one of these empowered operatives might feel you are
condoning or inciting
and it would mean that he or she might decide to have the entire site or
just a discrete component
of it "filtered" by your ISP who would have little or no say in what is
being filtered.

sure - there are things that i don't like to watch or listen to, but as an
adult i have the power to
not watch or listen to things i don't agree with.

sure - there are things that shouldn't be incited or condoned - there are
already courts and procedures
to evaluate, prosecute and punish where required people / groups that step
into those area's

the people asking for this power seem to have been asking since well before
our current
climate of fear made this seem like a viable option. these may also be the
people who are seeking the
power to enter your home or business without warrant and without notifying
you in anyway so they can examine
your personal correspondence and paperwork in secret to asses if you are
inciting, condoning or participating in activities
that carry a possible sentence of 3 years. the only legal test they would
need to satisfy is the duration of the sentence
the search may result in.

i don't live in china
i wasn't born in a police state
apparently we defeated the nazi's and fascist in a war a while back
i have the power of comment even when i am not an activist or representative
of a "authorised body" - for now

this type of censorship could easily be built on or misused to give our
ruling body the ability to have 100% media control
we used to point at communist countries inability to speak on or read
information the state didn't agree on as a bad thing
now we may be losing this ability ourselves.

this bill and what it represents is disgusting

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sunnz <sunnzy at gmail.com>
Date: Sep 23, 2007 7:17 PM
Subject: [clug] EFA?
To: "linux at lists.samba.org" <linux at lists.samba.org>

Hey,

I got an e-mail regarding to ISP censorship thing below.

Anyone here a member of EFA? The ISP censorship thing seem like a
pretty bad issue.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ivan Lazar Miljenovic <ivan.miljenovic at gmail.com>
Date: 2007/9/23 $B>e8a(B 2:19
Subject: [gentoo-au] Fwd: Police Censorship Bill and Whirlpool lawsuit
To: gentoo-au at lists.gentoo.org

I got this off the humbug mailing list... someone on this mailing list
might be interested, so I'm forwarding it on:

Folks,

What follows is a re-post (with permission) of an email to EFA members
on Friday.  I encourage everyone to visit http://www.efa.org.au/ and
consider joining Electronic Frontiers Australia, for your own sake.

----- Forwarded message from Dale Clapperton <efachair at efa.org.au> -----

Subject: EFA member update: Police Censorship Bill and Whirlpool Lawsuit

Dear EFA Member,

The last week has been an extremely busy one for EFA, so this is an
opportune time to let you know what EFA has been doing to protect your
rights, and the rights of all Australian Internet users.

Yesterday, out of the blue, Senator Coonan introduced a Bill into the
Senate that would give the Australian Federal Police sweeping and
unchecked powers to block access to Internet material by decree, based
on what the police 'believe' the purpose or effect of the material is.

EFA is quite simply appalled by this Bill.  It is an affront to the rule
of law and will likely be used as a tool of political censorship by the
police.  Australia is not a police state and the police should not be
the judge, jury, and executioner of Internet content.

EFA has issued a media release about the Bill
(http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR070920.html), which we expect to gain
media attention in the coming days.

Parliament may not sit again before the Federal election is called.
This Bill is typical of the contempt with which the coalition treats the
Internet and the rights of all Australians to be free of ill-conceived
government censorship.  Should the coalition be returned to power, this
Bill is likely to become law.  Remember these issues on election day.

Last Tuesday brought news that a software vendor had sued the owner of
popular Australian discussion forum whirlpool.net.au for "injurious
falsehood".  The software vendor, 2Clix Australia Pty Ltd, alleged that
the owner of whirlpool had maliciously published false statements about
2Clix's software, with the intent of damaging their business.

A number of EFA members contacted us to express their concern over the
lawsuit.

EFA made contact with Whirlpool and offered them whatever assistance we
could provide.  EFA also issued a press release
(http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR070912.html) condemning the lawsuit,
which created a considerable amount of media attention.  I was
interviewed by a number of journalists, including from Channel 7, who we
understand are preparing a feature article on the lawsuit.

EFA contacted a number of legal practitioners that we have existing
relationships with, with a view to finding pro-bono representation for
Whirlpool.  We received an encouraging response, but thankfully this
proved to be unnecessary.

The overwhelming public backlash against 2Clix caused them to back-flip
and announce that they would abandon the lawsuit.  EFA issued a press
release (http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR070919.html) welcoming this
news.  Although the paperwork to end the legal action has not yet been
filed, 2Clix's solicitors have confirmed to Whirlpool that they are
instructed to discontinue the action.  This is a true victory for people
power.

Whirlpool is not alone in this type of fight.  EFA knows of at least
three other cases currently before the courts in which operators of
discussion forums have been sued (for defamation, leaking confidential
documents, and racial vilification) because of what third parties have
posted on their forums.  These actions are an attack on free speech, and
on the infrastructure that permits members of the public to speak.

Adverse results in these cases threatens the provision of discussion
sites such as Whirlpool.  Yet, the majority of these sites do not have
100,000 members to support them, or to make donations towards their
legal costs.  EFA plays a vital role in assisting people in this
situation by attempting to find them pro-bono legal representation, and
providing other assistance.

We rely on your membership fees and donations to perform this vital
work.

In closing, I have established a personal blog at
http://defendingscoundrels.com/ - the topics that I blog about may be of
interest to many of you.

We're proud to keep fighting the good fight on your behalf, and we
appreciate your words of thanks.

Dale Clapperton
EFA Chairperson

----- End forwarded message -----

--
Ivan Lazar Miljenovic
Ivan.Miljenovic at gmail.com

--
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

--
linux mailing list
linux at lists.samba.org
https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/linux
-------------- next part --------------
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFG9c1JfEfFJ9JhvygRAgLlAJ9WWz8yqanan9C2hdsDTaYkXwIgEQCfWY9u
Bk3ybZ8jev9Bo5Em9RtByy8=
=K2HZ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----