[clug] [OT] Broadband clangers

[Ben Nizette]

On 12/08/2010, at 12:28 PM, Hal Ashburner wrote:

> 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.

.. which raises an interesting point as while bypassing R.C. purchase (and import?) laws is illegal, bypassing the filter won't be, see below.

> 
> 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.

Not /all/ of it, eg Exit International instructions for euthanasia.  Exit have already run workshops teaching older Australians how to bypass the filter and access these instructions, a move which Conroy's office says is legal [1]

> 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.

I'd say that "legal but RC stuff freely available over the internet" is a bit of a loophole, or at least would say that I can see how people would think it is.  But I agree that the actual method of enforcement doesn't make sense on a lot of levels.

	--Ben.

[1] http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/342180/pirate_party_philip_nitschke_teach_seniors_hack_filter/