[LINK] the myth of government censorship

[Adam Todd]

>perfect or rock-solid we *think* our society is.  By the time we wake up and
>realise our freedoms have been eroded, it'll be too late to do anything
>about it.

Sam, too late.

Look at the Environmental Protection Legislation, particular in 
NSW.  Giving Councils FULL autonomy and NO accountability for their actions.

Council decided you have breached the law - at it's discretion too mind 
you, nothing says you have to breach the law.  It can also decide that if 
the law says you must stop using your air conditioner within seven days, 
they can extend that to 14, 21, 28 days or just ignore the fact that a 
resident has complained.

Worse off, if you are issued with a Notice from council and don't comply, 
even if council has APPROVED whatever it is you are doing and it's pretty 
much irreversible now without massive cost to you, they can FINE you 
$110,000 and than an additional $11,000 PER DAY until you resolve the issue 
AND pay the FULL fine.

Now, you'd think a simple "Lets meet and resolve it" might work, but 
no.  YOU have to become the PLAINTIFF in  a legal ACTION in the Land and 
Environment Court, not to DEFEND the notice, but to PLAINT it.

If this is how it is with a simple law that already hurts society (and 
judging by many LEC cases, costs COUNCILS Billions a year in stupid notices 
that people are in fact occasionally wining against Council in the courts, 
rather than councils backing down and being intelligent - but hey they are 
council and not accountable to anyone,) what happens when the criminal law 
is modified:

Police man cites a notice that you murdered a person.  Doesn't matter if 
you did or not.  You are arrested, put in jail and until YOU decide to take 
action in the court to prove you did NOT commit the murder, you stay in jail.

At least the present "fines" system for motor traffic (Red Light, Speed 
etc) cause the Police to be the APPLICANT and you the DEFENDANT, but give 
the government another couple of years (if that) and when you get your 
fine, to save Law Enforcement taking people to court, you'll have to take 
them to court, at your expense and prove you didn't speed, rather than now 
where they have to prove you did.

Freedom?  We lost that about 15 years ago.  The only freedom we have left 
is to comply with the will of those who really don't give a stuff about you 
or what you are doing, just that you are not doing it their way or to their 
benefit.

You know, recently a report came out that Canberra small businesses are 
folding and closing because they are sick of the endless government 
paperwork needed to be done weekly.  I'm sure this isn't limited to Canberra.

What's odd however is that for some unknown reason people continue to 
stress themselves to comply.  What if EVERYONE just stopped submitting 
these endless time consuming and wasted forms (I'm sure no one really reads 
them) and we just get on with business?

What is Government going to do?  Fine the entire population over it's law, 
that the population clearly isn't happy with?  Isn't that called a vote of 
NO CONFIDENCE in that law?

If people don't like something, then they just stop doing it.  Like fuel 
prices.  If everyone just stopped buying fuel for 2 or 3 days a week (Thu, 
Fr, Sat the most expensive days) then the fuel companies either have to 
stop the 10 cent weekly pricing swing or satisfy the consumer with more 
reasonable prices.

As said in the piracy thread, the correlation between software prices and 
piracy stands out considerably.    It's a shame we can't pirate fuel and laws.

What's more the pity is that as a population, the end result is most people 
conform and comply, because it's easier than actually thinking about it, or 
heaven help, actually being different and standing up for themselves.