Australia Air Travelers' Laptops To Be Searched For Porn 647
bluetoad writes "Australian customs officers have been given the power to search incoming travelers' laptops and mobile phones for porn. Passengers must declare whether they are carrying pornography on their Incoming Passenger Card. The Australian government is also planning to implement an Internet filter. Once these powers are in places, who knows how they will be used."
Who is pushing for this? (Score:3, Informative)
In the US this kind of thing would usually be blamed on politicians pandering to the Christian right. Are there really a lot of fundies in Australia too? I always thought it was a very laid back sort of country.
Re:Who is pushing for this? (Score:4, Informative)
It used to be. But the Christian groups seem to have the current government by the balls. And the opposition leader is a fundamentalist as well, so we are fucked either way.
Re:Who is pushing for this? (Score:4, Informative)
Have you not been reading in the past few years since Stephen Conroy [wikipedia.org] assumed office? He's been spearheading all of these censorship efforts.
Re:So... (Score:3, Informative)
Well, when they're caught later, if you can prove they lied on their customs form you can put them away for even longer.
Re:So... (Score:4, Informative)
Yes. Pictures of women over 18 with small breasts are illegal on the grounds that it is "virtual child pornography":
http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/australia-bans-small-breasts/ [somebodyth...ildren.com]
Drawings of girls under 18 are banned because that too is virtual child pornography:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/01/simpsons-powerpuff-girls-porn-nets-jail-time-for-australian.ars [arstechnica.com]
Basically then if they want to arrest you I'm sure they could find something in your porn collection that's illegal, whether its a girl with small breasts or some cartoon porn.
Much like Canada they're very concerned with "virtual" things down there and far less concerned about real crimes. No doubt they'll be banning virtual murder and virtual dangerous driving in computer games next.
Re:Foiled again. (Score:3, Informative)
Don' tell this to the feds, but even if you can't get the optics normally used for it you should always be able to get paper and pencils, and even if you can't find that, i can assure you that you'll always manage to get wood.
Re:copyright vs material (Score:3, Informative)
Re:So... (Score:2, Informative)
Maybe the Japanese should leave their kiddie porn at home when they travel to the West?
you mean south right ? australia is south to japan.
Re:So... (Score:4, Informative)
He probably meant "The West" as in "Locales of Westernized Culture", of which Oz is included.
Re:Who is pushing for this? (Score:3, Informative)
Try this http://www.abc.net.au/compass/s1358912.htm [abc.net.au]
"Family First: A Federal Crusade" gives a basic guide into a few decades of political left and right infiltration by a powerful, tax free well funded, faith based network.
The part about "comment at a pre-polling booth that lesbians like Ingrid Tall should be burnt at the stake along with all the other witches. " and "implored Christians to pray to bring down Satan's strongholds including bottleshops, brothels and Buddhist Temples. " should be rather clear to most slashdot readers.
Re:So... (Score:4, Informative)
TFA is a bit of a beat-up. Basically, it's just clarifying that customs officers have the right to search your laptop. Just as they do in most other countries (including the US).
The justification in this case is twofold:
- Child porn (yes the old 'think of the children');
- Commercial quantities of regular porn (porn is legal to own and view in Australia, but it is illegal to sell it outside of specific areas and circumstances)
So this is targeted at people bringing in 50 shrinkwrapped XXX DVDs or child porn, rather than average joe who took some nude shots of his wife while on vacation overseas. You don't honestly think Customs has the time or resources to search everyone's laptop. I mean, EVERYONE travels with one these days. Half the time if you don't look suspicious and haven't declared anything they don't even bother putting you through the scanner ... they just say "go on through".
Another case of Australia seeming to have scary laws on paper, but which in reality will have no real effect. They are just there so that there's a legal justification for a search of a laptop in extreme cases (previously I don't think there was a justification for this since the Customs laws hadn't been updated in a while).
Re:So... (Score:1, Informative)
Judging by his capitalization of the word West, he was referring to 'the West' as in 'the Western world', not as a cardinal direction. The West includes western Europe, North America, and Australia.
Here is a map for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Clash_of_Civilizations_map2.png
Wiki article on the West: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world
Re:PCI compliance and encryption (Score:1, Informative)
Huh? Nobody knows whether or not it has porn, until after it's decrypted.
"Do you have porn on this computer?"
"No."
"I don't believe you. What is this pile of ciphertext?"
"Confidential information. You'll just have to take my word for it."
Impasse. Value of the new law: Zero, or less.
Re:So... (Score:4, Informative)
You try casually walking into a bank with a ford mustang concealed on your person before donning a clown mask and sticking the place up..
The actions of a few bad apples does not make the device itself dangerous. I could rob that bank with a knife or baseball bat if I was so inclined. Do you regard those items as dangerous?
Fact is, a gun's primary (and arguably only real) function is to shoot (at) people
I guess you've never heard of the shooting sports [wikipedia.org] or hunting?
Re:Censorship (Score:1, Informative)
Seriously.
Step 1. Download TrueCrypt
Step 2. Set up a plausible denial archive with two partitions
Step 3. Put bland, clearly legal pr0n on one partition. Make the password something easy like "naughty1"
Step 4. Put the nasty, illegal, immoral stuff on partition 2.
Step 5. Fight with the Australian authorities for one minute, then give then the "naughty1" password
Step 6. There is no step 6. Enjoy trafficking illicit material down under!
Re:So... (Score:4, Informative)
I guess you've never heard of the shooting sports [wikipedia.org] or hunting?
Handguns (with some exceptions, of course) are not typically used for either of those things.
Re:So... (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, competitive pistol-shooting is quite popular is some circles. Including the Olympic Games.
Re:PCI compliance and encryption (Score:3, Informative)
What if my laptop is encrypted because of PCI compliance? What if it is against the law in my country for me to compromise confidential information, but now Australia demands to see it? Does this mean American businessmen can't travel ao Australia with company laptops?
Or will Australia not search encrypted laptops?
Karma for this:-
Border Agents Can Search Laptops Without Cause, Appeals Court Rules [wired.com]
and
Taking your laptop into the US? Be sure to hide all your data first [guardian.co.uk]
But the US is not alone. British customs agents search laptops for pornography. And there are reports on the internet of this sort of thing happening at other borders, too.
Re:So... (Score:3, Informative)
There are more guns than people in the USA.
Their are fewer cars than people in the USA.
There are more automobile-related fatalities in the USA (42,600 in 2004) than firearms-related fatalities (So, actually, motor vehicles are rather more dangerous than guns...
Re:So... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:So... (Score:3, Informative)
a motor vehicle's primary function isnt running people over..
Which is what makes a vehicle a much better weapon. Hundreds of people are intentionally killed with vehicles monthly. The beauty is, failure to control your car is not a felony in it's self, so no one knows intent; and honestly not as much direct evidence of a crime. A gun implies a intent, leaves lots of evidence everywhere... Only the truly stupid or un-imaginative would use a gun for homicide. It is a real shame everyone isn't taught how to properly handle lethal tools; especially guns and vehicles. In places like Switzerland where (almost) every adult male is required to be trained in (and generally posses) Assult weapons, they have the lowest criminal use of those weapons in the world. (also they don't incite the same level of fear, and sense of power; which is what makes them so affective for control of people; like yourself, who are so uninformed to the world of firearms.)
Re:Yes, sir, officer (Score:3, Informative)
Anything that makes the censoring officer aroused.
Re:So... (Score:2, Informative)
Then don't tell them it's broken, just go "Oh, noesss!!! Those creepy scanner thingummajings destroyed my laptop!!!!" And break down in crying hysterics when they try to boot it up.
Might keep them busy for a while, too.
Re:So... (Score:5, Informative)
You should never do shit like: "tar -czvf archive.tgz ~/porndir;rm -rf ~/porndir". If the tar command fails (out of space, no permission and so on) you will lose your entire porn collection! Use && instead of ;