The Australian communications regulator has issued a stark warning that websites who link out to 'banned' hyperlinks are liable to fines of up to Aus $11,000 a day.
The news comes after web forum Whirlpool was threatened with the fine for posting a hyperlink to a blacklisted anti-abortion website.
One of the newest additions to Australia's 'blacklisted hyperlinks' list is Wikileaks; the website that publishes anonymous submissions of sensitive info on everything from corporations, religion and governments.
So while I can say that the address of wikileaks is http://wikileaks.org/, I can't link to it on an Australian server.
I can link to an anonymous proxy, such as KPROXY, and tell you to cut and paste "http://wikileaks.org/" in.
I can even give an embedded proxy:
I can even use the link http://tinyurl.com/3x32wwr which curiously enough takes you to... the Wikileaks Cable data. But that's OK, because that URL isn't on the banned list.
Since the Blogger server is in the USA, I would be OK... except that my site is being mirrored by the Australian National Library. Maybe they'd have responsibility, maybe not.
Senator Conroy is a deeply ignorant man, and his possession of the IT portfolio in the Australian cabinet is a joke. As I think I've just demonstrated.
Wikileaks is fabulous although I've never actually looked at it's website. I don't need to.
ReplyDeleteJust knowing that those that have been in positions of authority and didn't act with integrity are going to be found out is hopefully going to make many more people start acting with the best of intentions all of the time.
As for Senator Conroy, wasn't the previous minister Senator Coonan? Now that's a joke. A conservative party with a portfolio that includes nothing but progress.
Zoe, the law as we've always known is is going to simply become an obsolete way of operating as technology will only get better and faster, and create changes that simply cannot be kept up with by manual law-making the way it exists now.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax springs to mind. Banned by radio stations, went straight to number one. Tell me, what do I have to do to get my employer's web site on this banned list, I could use that sort of traffic boost.
ReplyDeleteWould you be nicked if I linked to a banned site in this comment?
As you say, a deeply ignorant man. I don't think I would have been that polite about him.
My understanding is that you can link to The Guardian, or any of the other news organizations both covering this story in detail, including some of the messages.
ReplyDeleteHeck... my understanding is that you could post the messages directly, at least in most cases.
Having looked at The Guardian's reports, I wonder what Conroy is worried about. Perhaps I should look at wikileaks itself in the next few days. Or perhaps he thinks that this release includes something it doesn't.
wd for pointing out that wikileaks is now banned.
ReplyDeleteits a good exmaple of how effective the govenment's statements are
din
Apparently, they've been removed from the blacklist of pointlessness:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zdnet.com.au/wikileaks-removed-from-acma-blacklist-339307604.htm?feed=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
i was reading techradar. Wikileaks is no longer a banned website
ReplyDeletedin
Ever wonder if the leaks are done by the American Government on purpose?
ReplyDeleteJFG
It's not the ignorance I care about, it's the presumption.
ReplyDeleteI can understand censorship of broadcast non-subscription media, and of displays that will be public, but censoring the internet is wrong on two counts: one, you can't see unpleasant material without CHOOSING to; two it is a communication medium (akin to telephones) not a publishing medium (akin to magazines).
After that, we get to the issues: you can't ACTUALLY censor it. This leads to the next point: a false sense of security destroys the real filter for children on the 'net: supervision (and its adjunct: home filtering by an actively supervising adult).
Well, it's nice to know our government is as caring and moral as the theocracies of the Middle East and the authoritarian absolutist regimes, various, of Asia and South America.
LOL.
ReplyDeleteI hope that the big papers and/or mass-market current affair tv shows get wind of this. Really if he's going to be a laughingstock online he should be a subject for mirth for everyone offline too.