Hi! I'm not an Australian, obviously -thank you for stopping by and putting things into perspective a bit.
The reason this kind of news gets me so riled up right away is that it seems as if anywhere in the world, dodgy legislation related to internet censorship and also copyright can often pass with very little resistance, because there's an appalling lack of awareness about these issues among the people being legislated. These are topics that most people virtually never read or hear about in the papers or on TV. I spend a lot of time reading and talking about censorship and copyright on the net, but as soon as I mention it to friends or family, everyone goes "Bzuh?". Part of the reason copyright law could go completely insane in the late 20th century is that most people just had no idea what copyright was really about. (Note: I'm speaking about the situation in Belgium, where I live. Not sure how different or similar Australia is on this.)
Anyway, I'm afraid that particularly when it's a topic about which there's very little public awareness, you could get pretty much anything past people if the cause is lofty and the opposition can't or doesn't make a solid case. That's why this kind of legal nonsense scares me. Fighting child porn is certainly pretty lofty -who'd ever be against that?
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 09:41 pm (UTC)The reason this kind of news gets me so riled up right away is that it seems as if anywhere in the world, dodgy legislation related to internet censorship and also copyright can often pass with very little resistance, because there's an appalling lack of awareness about these issues among the people being legislated. These are topics that most people virtually never read or hear about in the papers or on TV. I spend a lot of time reading and talking about censorship and copyright on the net, but as soon as I mention it to friends or family, everyone goes "Bzuh?". Part of the reason copyright law could go completely insane in the late 20th century is that most people just had no idea what copyright was really about. (Note: I'm speaking about the situation in Belgium, where I live. Not sure how different or similar Australia is on this.)
Anyway, I'm afraid that particularly when it's a topic about which there's very little public awareness, you could get pretty much anything past people if the cause is lofty and the opposition can't or doesn't make a solid case. That's why this kind of legal nonsense scares me. Fighting child porn is certainly pretty lofty -who'd ever be against that?