Australian Govt Censors Notes From Secret Anti-Piracy Talks 177
An anonymous reader writes "It looks as if the Australian Government really doesn't want the public to know what's going on in its closed-door talks with ISPs and the content industry. The Attorney-General's Department has applied the black marker to almost all of the information contained in documents about the meetings released under Freedom of Information laws. The reason? It wouldn't be in the 'public interest' to release the information. Strange how the public seems to have a high degree of interest in finding out what's being talked about."
Sickening, (Score:5, Insightful)
Conroy is not the biggest - he is one of many. Only 30% of the population support Labor (an organisation that can't even spell its own name correctly). A large percentage of the population dispise and detest them. However, short of civil inssurection, how the hell do you get rid of them? The people can't call an election and they have taken away our guns.
This person doesn't live in Oz.
We can call an election, it's just that no-one wants to. We dont need guns to do that, I suspect the GP is not Australian and doesn't realise Aussies can sort out their problems without violence. To get an election called, all we need to do is prove to the Governor-General that the current government is unfit, then she dissolves parliament. The thing is, no-one wants to, elections are a pain in the arse, a waste of a good Saturday and the Liberals are even worse then Labor.
The Labor party is actually preferred over the Coalition in the two party preferred poll, add the popularity of the Greens and they will retain control next election (ALP with the help of the Greens). If anything, I expect more votes to go to Green and independent candidates. The Coalition will never get in because Abbott's just a patsy for the Liberal power brokers and their economic policies are insane ($70 Billion dollar black hole the shadow treasurer cant account for).
But what could it hold against public interest? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can understand how you can redact portions of documents where release of information might lead to physical harm, like planned locations of troops or identities of informants.
But how on earth can there be ANYTHING not releasable in a talk on copyright? There is nothing that could be talked about that would cause physical harm to others.
This absolutely stinks and I hope the courts can be brought into release the information attempted to be hidden from the public.
So what has been hidden? My best guess is that the document shows a terrifying contempt for the common citizen in regards to rights they have, and they are really worried about how that would come across in the press.
"industry-negotiated solution" (Score:5, Insightful)
In a briefing issued to Attorney-General Nicola Roxon regarding the meeting, the department noted that it continued to prefer an industry-negotiated solution to the issue of Internet content piracy.
Industry-negotiated "solutions" are the antithesis of a democratic process.
It's amazing that governments not only allow this to happen, but actively facilitate the process.
If the government had to step in and set up rules, they'd be forced to accept input from those annoying citizens they're supposed to represent.
Re:Sickening, (Score:2, Insightful)
Um, pretty much the only growing economy in the western world. An actual plan to deal with deficit.
I suggest you check your facts instead of relying on things like News Limited.
Reason: (Score:4, Insightful)
They are chicken - afraid that people find out what they are up to.
Any public servant doing this kind of stuff should be penalized.
William Binney: ...after he realized that the NSA is now openly trampling the constitution, says as he holds his thumb and forefinger close together. "We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state."
The Public Interest (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sickening (Score:5, Insightful)
However, short of civil inssurection, how the hell do you get rid of them? The people can't call an election and they have taken away our guns.
You wait until the next federal election when we all get to vote. That's how we like do it round here.
I thought the conservatives really overreached when they banned almost all guns (even though 85% of my fellow Australians supported Howard on this issue). When I read posts like yours, however, I wonder whether my loss at having my piddly 22 taken away isn't, after all, outweighed by my gain from having any firearm kept out of the hands of folks like yourself.
Physical harm to corporations (Score:5, Insightful)
It's an outrageous outrage (Score:5, Insightful)
Protesting against greed while wearing hollywood masks and shitting in the town square is going to be about as effective as flower power was at "solving" the same issues 40yrs ago. One of the largest internal migrations in the US was in the early 70's when the hippies left the cities in droves to establish communes that shunned political hierarchies and political alliances between members. Virtually none of the communes lasted more that a couple of years. Most people assume it was because of jelousy brought on by the "love thy neighbour" attitute to sex, but it was nothing of the sort. They failed because the lack of political structure created a power vacumn allowing the one slightly more agressive member of the group to rise to the top by brow beating individuals into submission one at a time, when that stopped working things got physical. Coincidently this was all around the same time that the Stanford prision experiments demonstrated that we all have an evil dictator lurking in our phyche just waiting for the opportunity to fill a political power vacum and we also all have a cowering slave in our phyche that given the right conditions will emerge and chose security over liberty.
In other words, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The mayor hides the crime rate
council woman hesitates
Public gets irate, but forgets the vote date
Weatherman complaining, predicted sun, it's raining
Everyone's protesting, boyfriend keeps suggesting
you're not like all of the rest.
Garbage ain't collected, women ain't protected
Politicians using, people they're abusing
The mafia's getting bigger, like pollution in the river
And you tell me that this is where it's at.
Woke up this moming with an ache in my head
Splashed on my clothes as I spilled out of bed
Opened the window to listen to the news
But all I heard was the Establishment's Blues.
Gun sales are soaring, housewives find life boring
Divorce the only answer, smoking causes cancer
This system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune
And that's a concrete cold fact.
The pope digs population, freedom from taxation
Teeny Bops are up tight, drinking at a stoplight
Miniskirt is flirting I can't stop so I'm hurting.
Spinster sells her hopeless chest.
Adultery plays the kitchen, bigot cops non-fiction
The little man gets shafted, sons and monies drafted
Living by a time piece, new war in the far east.
Can you pass the Rorschach test?
It's a hassle is an educated guess.
Well, frankly I couldn't care less.
- This Is Not A Song, Its An Outburst (AKA The Establishment Blues ); Rodriguez - 1970
Re:The Public Interest (Score:4, Insightful)
Uh, no. If revealing what they're discussing is likely to cause protests and riots - then perhaps they shouldn't be discussing it in the first place. It'll have to be revealed at some point so the riots and protests will still happen. The only reason they want to keep it secret is to hopefully ram it through ASAP against the public's wishes.
Re:Sickening (Score:5, Insightful)
Gun control never works in a country that already has an abundance of guns.
The UK has absolute gun control.
All we have are stabbings. Attempts to curb knife ownership have failed. People still get stabbed all the time.
Keeping weapons off the streets is simple. Getting them off the streets once they're there is next to impossible.