[LINK] Gag The Internet (Obama) - Was - New Zealand set to join internet blocking club

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Craig Sanders
> Sent: Thursday, 16 July 2009 1:09 PM
> To: link
> Subject: Re: [LINK] New Zealand set to join internet blocking club
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 09:27:10AM +1000, Bernard 
> Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> > New Zealand set to join internet blocking club
> > Concerns over oversight and spying on users
> > By John Ozimek
> > 15th July 2009 11:03 GMT
> > The Register 
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/15/big_nz> _blocklist/
> > 
> [...]
> > 
> > At present, New Zealand has no 
> official internet blocking, although
> > possession and publication of obscene material is covered under the 
> > Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993. 
> Responsibility 
> > for policing what goes on to the internet falls to the 
> Department of 
> > Internal Affairs (DIA), who have largely been concerned 
> with material 
> > featuring the abuse of children or sex with animals.
> 
> the usual excuse - kiddie porn and other illegal or obscene material.
> 
> the real reason why governments around the world are 
> introducing censorship regimes like this is the intense 
> pressure and lobbying that the (mostly american) copyright 
> industries are bringing to bear on them.
> 
> trash movies from hollywood and bland corporate muzak are the 
> root cause of the push to lock up the internet. aren't you 
> glad that it's being done for a noble and worthy cause?
> 
> craig


Unfortunately,

Not enough citizens are recognising the worldwide threat to our hard-won
and accepted freedom from facism, communism, nazism, stalinism.

Most are sitting on their hands - saying - "It wont happen here - This
was a WASP country but now we are enlightened."

We may be enlightened, but whilst our Government meets behind "Closed
Session" to produce "secret accords" with other Governments, I consider
Kevin Rudd's Blog - is a smokescreen designed to take the attention away
from the main issue at hand.

"Block the Internet - Take back the Power!"

Over the last six months I have seen more countries agree to put up
barriers against free speech, censorship, and political freedom than
since the 50's.

I refuse to believe that this is not an internationally organised,
Government to Government co-ordinated action.

I am concerned that when the public do realise that their legislators
have sold them out - it may be too late to respond.

President Obamas Latest "Appointee" is an interesting addition to the
list of "Lets control the Internet - before we loose power."

The New York Times Article - Gag The Internet 
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07112009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/gag_the_
internet__178749.htm

Reveals:

 When it comes to the First Amendment, Team Obama believes in Global
Chilling.

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law professor who has been appointed to a
shadowy post that will grant him powers that are merely mind-boggling,
explicitly supports using the courts to impose a "chilling effect" on
speech that might hurt someone's feelings. He thinks that the bloggers
have been rampaging out of control and that new laws need to be written
to corral them.

Advance copies of Sunstein's new book, "On Rumors: How Falsehoods
Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done," have gone out to
reviewers ahead of its September publication date, but considering the
prominence with which Sunstein is about to be endowed, his worrying
views are fair game now. Sunstein is President Obama's choice to head
the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. It's the
bland titles that should scare you the most.

"Although obscure," reported the Wall Street Journal, "the post wields
outsize power. It oversees regulations throughout the government, from
the Environmental Protection Agency to the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration. Obama aides have said the job will be crucial as
the new administration overhauls financial-services regulations,
attempts to pass universal health care and tries to forge a new approach
to controlling emissions of greenhouse gases."

Sunstein was appointed, no doubt, off the success of "Nudge," his
previous book, which suggests that government ought to gently force
people to be better human beings.

Czar is too mild a world for what Sunstein is about to become. How about
"regulator in chief"? How about "lawgiver"? He is Obama's Obama.

In "On Rumors," Sunstein reviews how views get cemented in one camp even
when people are presented with persuasive evidence to the contrary. He
worries that we are headed for a future in which "people's beliefs are a
product of social networks working as echo chambers in which false
rumors spread like wildfire." That future, though, is already here,
according to Sunstein. "We hardly need to imagine a world, however, in
which people and institutions are being harmed by the rapid spread of
damaging falsehoods via the Internet," he writes. "We live in that
world. What might be done to reduce the harm?"

Sunstein questions the current libel standard - which requires proving
"actual malice" against those who write about public figures, including
celebrities. Mere "negligence" isn't libelous, but Sunstein wonders, "Is
it so important to provide breathing space for damaging falsehoods about
entertainers?" Celeb rags, get ready to hire more lawyers.


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