Australian Govt Holding Secretive Anti-Piracy Talks

daria42 writes "Looks like Australia's Government prefers to keep its ongoing anti-piracy discussions behind closed doors. It held an initial meeting in September last year to try to get the content and ISP industries to thrash out an agreement on how to handle Internet piracy. Consumer representative groups were explicitly blocked from attending the meeting, and attendees are not allowed to reveal what was discussed behind closed doors. Now a second meeting has been held, and again, no information has been revealed about what's being discussed. Quelle conspiracy?"

Re:Good luck with all that, you idiots ...

[gmhowell]

one wonders what the US govt actually spends its money on if it can't even get those right.

Guns. Big ones, little ones. Ones carried by men, ones carried by trucks. Gun on ships and guns on planes.

Re:Good luck with all that, you idiots ...

[FatLittleMonkey]

Guns. Big ones, little ones. Ones carried by men, ones carried by trucks. Gun on ships and guns on planes.

"In his later years, Dr. Seuss became increasingly... unstable."

Re:First

[rust627]

Abbot

the man who cannot see beyond his own "No's"

Re:Slight correction

[hawkinspeter]

Everyone knows that torches are containers for dead batteries that live at the bottom of kit bags.

Re:First

[crutchy]

the budgie smuggler incident was bad enough. he'll never live that one down

Re:First

[BlueStrat]

Abbot is much more in thrall of modern US conservative political tactics than John Howard was. He often repeats the Fox talking points like they were his own. And the "No" strategy is straight out of the Republican playbook.

"No" is the only possible answer when faced with something that violates your basic principles. If one has basic principles & beliefs that one lives by, one does not deal them away just to be seen as "bipartisan".

If any non-Americans are confused about Progressives/Democrats accusing the Conservatives/Republicans of being the "party of 'no'" and being unwilling to compromise, here's how these things typically go:

Dem/Prog - "Let me put this in your mouth."

Con/Rep - "Hell no!"

Dem/Prog - "C'mon, let me!"

Con/Rep - "No, I said!"

Dem/Prog - "OK, just let me put the tip in your mouth."

Con/Rep - "Hell no! Get away from me!"

Dem/Prog - "See! Those guys won't compromise at all! They're the 'party of no'! They want to stop everything! They want to keep the government from working! They're terrorists!!!"

Keep that in mind the next time you hear US Liberal/Progressive/Democrats whining about how the opposition won't compromise.

Strat