[LINK] Google soon to be banned in Australia under draconian censorship laws

[Kim Holburn]

http://www.inquisitr.com/20245/google-soon-to-be-banned-in-australia-under-draconian-censorship-laws/
> Google soon to be banned in Australia under draconian censorship laws
>
> Recent action by the Australian Government may see Google and many  
> other popular websites banned in Australia under existing censorship  
> laws.
>
> Under the Communications Legislation Amendment (Content Services)  
> Act 2007 sites that link to content that is Refused Classification  
> (RC) are considered themselves to be RC, and if hosted in Australia,  
> site owners can be ordered to remove the link(s), or fined AU$11,000  
> a day.
>
> The problem is that the provisions potentially make most sites on  
> the internet illegal. Take for example the leaked Australian  
> Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) blacklist on Wikileaks we  
> wrote about earlier. Given that the list was published after ACMA  
> banned a similar list from Denmark, it’s fair to say that linking to  
> the Australian list will be illegal as well from Australia. Note at  
> this point that the content in the list consists entirely of URLs  
> and does not in itself publish pictures or video; under the act, the  
> links in the list are illegal content (RC) because of what they link  
> to. Likewise, linking to that list is illegal because the list  
> itself is now illegal. Any site that links to the list of links then  
> becomes prohibited content. Most sites would have a front page with  
> internal links, so any page on a site that links to the post that  
> links to the list of links becomes illegal. Keeping up?
>
> If I was linking to XYZ blog, and XYZ blog was linking to ABC blog  
> who had linked to the list, all the pages in the chain are illegal,  
> because each one links to prohibited content. Any site linking to me  
> then becomes illegal, and so on.
>
> But it gets better, because it took 1 second for me to bring up a  
> page in Google which links to the Denmark list. If the Denmark list  
> is prohibited content, then Google is in breach of the act as well,  
> and could well end up being banned. And that’s before you even  
> consider that Google itself takes copies of pages through Google  
> Cache (I’m not allowed to link to it, but it is there, in full in  
> Google.)
>
> This is the stupidity of what is essentially a thought crime:  
> criminalizing a list of links which are text and do not in  
> themselves constitute child porn or other physical illegal activity.  
> The law sets off a chain that could potentially result in most, if  
> not all of the internet in Australia being banned by the Government.
>
> Sounds extreme? well so is making laws that say sites are refused  
> classification for a link and not content. Fascism in Australia has  
> a very wide bow.
>


-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
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