[clug] [OT] Broadband clangers

[Hal Ashburner]

On 12/08/10 11:50, Ben Nizette wrote:
> On 12/08/2010, at 10:41 AM, steve jenkin wrote:
>
>    
>>
>> Anyone got a better idea or insight??
>>      
> As far as I've been able to tell Conroy doesn't see the introduction of a filter as a new radical policy, he sees it as closing a loop-hole.  At the moment you can't get Refused Classification media by book, as a game at EB, as a DVD at Video Ezy etc etc.  He has always couched the filter not in terms of the filter itself but rather as a means to implement the same restrictions on internet-delivered media as any physically-delivered media.  I'm not convinced he expected such a huge outcry, after all (with the exception of R18+ games) no-one really objects to the restrictions on this material in physical form.
>    
At the moment you absolutely CAN go to a shop and buy stuff that has 
been refused classification. It's 100% illegal and so it should be and 
you and the shop are breaking the law if you do it. The police attempt 
to enforce this and do a pretty reasonable job. You don't need the 
approval of a public servant to to enter every shop you go into or 
private transaction you enter from a list you can't see etc. etc.

This argument comes up and is just utter nonsense. R.C. stuff is illegal 
on the internet and you can go to jail for it. There are high profile 
cases in the paper about this today and yet we have no filter. There is 
no loophole, there never has been one and there's no proposal to bring a 
loophole in. There is no cause to get approval for everything we do 
because we are capable of doing things that are illegal. This is no 
different to cases where computer are not involved. Are you going down 
the street to buy milk or kill the man who runs the corner shop? Will an 
approval process help? Will "the children" be more safe from nutcases 
who wish them harm if you did need an automated and logged approval 
because you fancy a slice of toast for breakfast?

Maybe Conroy and Family First think you can outlaw lying. And when 
they've nailed that they'll sentence us all to be hung from the neck 
until we cheer up a bit. It's impossible to satirise these idiots, how 
ever did they graduate from high school?

Has anyone been bothered to look at who is courting family first for 
preference deals and so on and how? People who wish to "raise their 
children to believe" rather than give them some skills in not being 
duped and let them figure out life for themselves from there as far as 
possible have generally hated sources of information like books, 
libraries, universities, the internet etc. What if the children get it 
/wrong/ ?? (gasp) We must "think of the children" and protect them.