I'm taking the liberty of reproducing this unchanged in the interests of international co-operation and also because of its interest in Australia. If anyone has any information for Judyth ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) I am sure it will be put to good use. Dion Giles ------------------------------------------------------------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Judyth Mermelstein) Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Internet Censorship Bill-Australia Date: 27 Apr 1999 16:39:04 GMT Organization: Babylon, Montreal, Canada Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Perhaps one of our Australian colleagues can enlighten us about the political aspects of the proposed legislation discussed below. Meanwhile, it appears that a U.S. court has struck down a provision which made it a crime to publish or post an anonymous pamphlet or message. The grounds for the decision were that society as a whole would lose by prohibiting copyrightable material from entering the public domain, since some people would choose not to express their ideas freely if they could not do so anonymously. The case in question was brought by a municipality against a woman who distributed ant-city-council fliers without her name on them. I was somewhat surprised that the court seems not to have ruled on the freedom of speech aspect but I don't have all the details. Regards, Judyth -----Fwd---- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, see http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with Subject: info rre =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 12:00:08 +1000 (EST) From: "Danny Yee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [...] On April 21st the Australian government tabled Internet censorship legislation, in the most sweeping attack in decades on the freedom of Australians to read and view what they choose. Detailed information and analysis can be found at http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/99.html A brief summary of some of the nastier points: * there are no protections for user privacy or freedom to read - and ISPs are indemnified against legal action by their users as a result of action under this Bill * in response to complaints, Internet content to be classified using Film and Video classifications (rather than the Publication classification scheme) * many books that can be sold without restriction in bookshops will be illegal/prohibited if placed online * non-violent erotica (X or NVE rated materials) to be "prohibited content", whether hosted within Australia or overseas * any content unsuitable for minors (R-rated) within Australia must be protected by adult verification systems or it will also be prohibited * ISPs forced to block prohibited content from overseas and take down prohibited content within Australia, within 24 hours of receiving a notice from the Australian Broadcasting Authority, on pain of $27000/day fines Since only a fraction of adult overseas content can possibly be blocked under this scheme, it will have no practical effect towards its stated goal of protecting children. It is, in fact, directly aimed at controlling what adult Australians can read and view. It will also increase the costs of Internet access for everyone and cripple the Australian content hosting industry. Please help stop this legislation. Some suggestions can be found at http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/alert99.html The Senate Select Committee on Information Technologies is accepting submissions on the Bill, but the deadline is this Friday (April 30th)! http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/advert/online.htm (Individuals can make submissions and they can be of any length.) The government plans to push the Bill though a senate committee on May 11th, with the intention of passing it into law before July 31st. So we don't have much time. Danny. -- For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is the Neither public email list, open for the public and general discussion. To unsubscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=unsubscribe To subscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=subscribe For information on [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.neither.org/lists/public-list.htm For archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
