[LINK] Information controls in the Age of Information

[David Boxall]

On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 at 11:06:59 +1100 Paul Brooks wrote:
> ... the kind of material that we might universally like to see blocked ...
I contend that there is no such thing as "information that _we_ *would* 
universally like to see blocked".

Put another way: what role (if any) does censorship (or any other sort 
of information control) have?

Australia is, nominally, a free and open democracy. We live in the 
Information Age, of which the Internet is part. Are attempts to control 
information consistent with that environment?

On Thu, 19 Mar 2009 at 17:18:37 +0000 Leah Manta wrote:
> Child Abuse and Child Porn sites, fine, nail them, why there isn't a 
> GLOBAL set of legal treaties with EVERY GOVERNMENT of EVERY COUNTRY 
> on this issue so that the word "Jurisdiction" can never be spoken is 
> just completely beyond my understanding.
Agreed. The information in question is abhorrent. What is most important:
- stopping the dissemination of that information or
- preventing the creation of more of it (with the associated abuses)?

In both, criminal sanctions against the source(s) are most likely to 
succeed. That is; traditional policing, not a cheap technical fix.

I liken filtering to having someone cover my eyes and ears, so I can't 
see or hear another person being attacked. The attack still happens, I 
just don't know about it.

Maybe that's what the proponents of filtering are really about: they 
want to be able to pretend that child abuse isn't happening.
 
-- 
David Boxall                    |  All that is required
                                |  for evil to prevail is
                                |  for good men to do nothing.
                                |     -- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)