Bonkers!

They really have gone bonkers with surveillance in Oz haven't they?

Aussie Pirate Party anyone?

Genuine world class competition...

...for our own bunch of Stalinist muppets in the "shrill and self-righteous pseudo-democratic police state of the year" competition. The Ockers will definitely score well on the 'shrill' bit and probably pick up points in the "pointless waste of cutting edge technology section", but we should still beat them to the prize in the finishing straight from the sheer weight of CCTV/NPR/Speed cams and by deploying our secret weapon, Andy "Censor every clip on youtube by hand" Burnham in the tie-breaking "Minister least likely to understand any IT related subject at all, ever" category. If all else fails, we have a wonderful record on pointless police intimidation of perfectly innocent people with cameras.

If there's any pleasure left in this world, it must be seeing the formerly laid-back Aussies disappearing up their own arseholes.

Paris; dumb yes, but not in Andy's league

Ozzie Knut

Why doesn't the Australian Govt try ordering back the waves at the same time?

I don't care how draconian the solution suggested by technical dullards, they are completely wasting their time. Whatever they try won't work.

The solution to piracy is to make the paid solutions more appealing to customers than the free alternative. Look at Apple and iTunes. They have made a fortune by providing a good service that is easy to use, well-integrated into widely used software and (fairly) reasonably priced.

There is no other solution idiots - get used to it.

Thank God

for usenet & SSL.

Dickheads.

Question

Has anyone noticed that the three democracies that seem keenest on spying on their populations are the UK, Australia and the US. Anyone know why this should be, some strange shared DNA, something in their shared history or what?

This is all a ploy...

There is a more subversive ideal at point here... with this legislation, the government will be able to look for more then file sharing...

Me thínks this has parallels to the minority report.

my2c

Snail mail

Why of why if the Oz government wants to check all electronic communications for copyright violations don't they also check snail mail as well. I mean it's so easy to photocopy something and stick it in an envelope. Ahh, I shouldn't have said anything - I think I've just given them a clue* as to what they need to monitor next - photocopiers!!

* I think they need a big clue stick.

Who to monitor first

Their own MP's ofcourse.. (now till december) ... I know the outcome already pr0n surfing bunch of wank3rs.

@PerfectBlue

For such a concise and well targetted paragraph, I will forgive your Aussie jokes.

Paris because she'd be a better communications minister than Conroy.

Good luck with that

So, how will the system be able to tell when you download copyrighted material legitimately? Spotify, iTunes, last.fm, Youtube and artists' own websites are all quite acceptable places to use, plus any more that may be added in the future. How will the ISPs know which sites are allowed, and what happens if an industry group has a squabble with one of them, like Youtube and the PRS? Sometimes you can tell that something just cannot work.

Idiots

That's all.

Fight Back

Conroy may well be a World Class Idiot, but make no mistake, PM Kevin Rudd works closely with Conroy and knows all about it. Rudd is a control freak - filtering and censorship make sweet music to his ears. Above all, they want complete CONTROL.

Proxies, P2P and encryption may all sound like good ways around these ridiculous proposals, but while we're all distracted with Conroy's posturing and his filtering trial, and we're divided (and therefore conquered) by the "think of the children" deception, there's another half of this game being played somewhere else.

It's a classic pincer manoeuvre and the other half of the pincer is the ACTA Treaty. Do a search on "ACTA Treaty" and then weep ... and then shake your fists in anger ... and then weep some more.

But don't be disheartened or complacent. Don't be confused or distracted by their lies and policy slight-of-hand. Read everything you can, understand the strategies in play and FIGHT BACK through distributing the real facts - to you friends, family and work colleagues - and with your vote.

Our "government" now requires...

...us to wear shirts saying "kick me, I'm an Aussie and I'm VERY STUPID" when we travel overseas.

Please don't come here for holidays. It's horrible, the trains are a frucking joke, you're likely to get murdered by some drunk throwback, you'll be ripped off in our horrifically overpriced tourist traps (I laugh at anyone who says Tokyo is expensive - come on down to SYDNEY!) AND THEN our muppet-face uber-Stasi goverment will collar you for for listening to your iPhone.

For those of you who haven't heard, ANY 'format shifting' in Australia is, by law, illegal. ie. You can only put music on your iPod by download from Apple. Copying from your own original CDs/Tapes/Vinyl/Radio is a crime under Australian law. FAIl FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIl There aren't enough FAIL icons to cover our goverment.

I am in shame that I helped vote these almighty assholes into power; the only mitigating reason I have is the the previous bunch of moronic jerks were EVEN WORSE.

SSL? dream on

the way things are going, it will soon be illegal to encrypt anything unless it is allowed by the state. If the ISP find that you transferred more then 1mb of encrypted data per minute for more then 10 minutes.... then something is a foot. You will be suspected of trying to "hide" questionable actives from the state and an investigation into your actives will be deemed required.

face it, encryption will soon become illegal. Deal with it.

Socialist tools.

The Australian Labor government has decided to stump up ITS cash (tax payers cash) to build a national broadband network. So if the government is using ITS money to pay for such infrastructure, surely the government is going to went some political dividend to help it "protect the populous from Terry Rist, peds and pirates" ,cough, spy on its citizens to help increase its chances of holding power.

That it won't be technically easy to achieve, efficient or even effective does not concern politicians. They just need to put a half-arsed scheme in place then make a set of draconian laws to punish harshly those that dare to challenge the politicians stupidity and authority by defying the spying regime.

Conroy and Wong are standing proud as two reasons to boot Rudd labor at the next election.

Big Brother, what else?

It's those whacky god-botherers

Rudd is a Queenslander (Think: Florida).

They are all weird there, most are crazy, god-fearing zealots.

Mad as cut snakes and all..

Leave us alone!

We don't need no steeenking Gods or invisible sky faeries!!!!

Oz politician found surfing for pron

Just a future headline. It happened here (UK) with the Home Secretary's Husband and her expenses.

Ahh, it's logical my dear.

Seems that he isn't content with "internet villain of the year", he wants the "internet villain of the decade" price.

Fulll Frontal Vomiting

Yes Bruce, it makes me want to vomit - full copyright control can easily be implemented:

a. Turn off the Internet - it's only dole bludgers who use it anyway.

b. All communications can be via fax.

c. Ban private fax machines - faxes can be picked up (for a small administrative fee) at the local police station.

d. Ban private ownership of tape recorders, MP3 players, DVD recorders and typewriters.

and finally...

e. Everyone attending the Sydney Opera house has to have their ears stuffed with wax before the start of the performance.

Right mate, that's sorted.

@ sandman

Is that, they are the govs most wanting to, or, the govs most open about wanting to, spy on us?

I am in NO WAY condoning governments spying on its citizenry, but seems like a reasonable question.

Sadly, I believe that governments fully understand that we don't want them spying on us and that the use of DPI by any telco/ISP for any type of data mining for any reason is wrong. I say this with the caveat that a duly processed warrant with effective oversites in place could be appropriate.

Governments the world over prove that those who want to be in power are those whom we should least wnat to have in power. Yes, I see the problem this creates.

Doesn't matter

I already have Tor and GPass installed on all my computers ready to bypass the censorship when it comes in, so all my downloads will simply go through them as well. I'm currently introducing all my friends and family to these applications as well; they in turn are starting to pass them on to others, so by the time this bullshit comes in most of Adelaide at least will already be on the Tor/GPass network anyway!

But what a shame we have to use software designed for Chinese and Iranians because of the neonazi dictatorship in this country.

Suck on this, Conroy. We defy you and spit in your vile paedo-obseesed face!

China...

...has some copies of Green Dam going spare if the goverment wants them. China found them to controversial, so are happy to donate them to a more willing country.

@ Goat Jam

Don't worry, our politicians are witless dipshits as well.....

@Simon Langley

"Look at Apple and iTunes. They have made a fortune by providing a good service that is easy to use, well-integrated into widely used software and (fairly) reasonably priced."

You've obviously never used iTunes on anything other than a Mac, and only ever buy Apple hardware for your home!

When used on Windows, iTunes ties your purchases into Apple software (iTunes), Apple hardware (iPod) and performs unspeakable acts upon anything you have in a format that isn't the Apple proprietary format.

Not to mention it has been the subjet of a trojan horse that installed a piece of malware called "Safari browser" without the user's say-so...

There is a valid reason

There is a reason why, when Australia became a federation, that we put our capital city right out in the sticks well away from the two main cities of the country.

It was so that we knew where all the politicians who were supposed to be running the country in a sage sensible manner could be found at quick notice by an determined mob.

After all, it takes a couple of hours to get there from Sydney and a few more hours than that to get there from Melbourne and peoples initial tempers will have had time to cool down and they can deliberate on the manner of disposal of the useless politicians that they had come looking for.

Failing that, we could always tell the Americans that they can practice their bombing in the region and get rid of a pack of useless public servants at the same time.

The only downshot is that we would then have to rebuild Canberra (no great loss there) and elect another pack of useless politicians... who would be slightly more circumspect than their immediate predecessors.

@Budley - Don't worry, our politicians are witless dipshits as well.....

I hate to say it, but MOST politicians EVERYWHERE fit into this category.