[LINK] ACS new? submission on ISP filtering

[Karl Auer]

On Thu, 2010-03-18 at 09:02 +1100, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> Just saw this. It's undated, so I don't know how 'new' it is. But it 
> does appear to be more critical and constructive of the proposed 
> filtering system. (sorry Philip)
> 
> http://www.acs.org.au/attachments/ACSSUBMISSIONtoGovtRC.pdf

It's pretty light weight. The most interesting thing in it is this
astounding statement:

   The ACS in no way questions the need to close down and prevent
   access to child pornography, sexual abuse, rape or other content
   that the great majority of Australians would find totally
   abhorrent.

At face value the ACS is saying that anything "the great majority of
Australians would find totally abhorrent" is fair game to be censored.

At best this is careless use of the word "content", most likely it is
careless brown-nosing. It is a key part of a functional democratic
society that viewpoints, however abhorrent to the majority, may be
expressed. Practical and political reality mean that *some* viewpoints
are suppressed, but that suppression must *always* be questioned.

Opinion is content. The mere fact that most Australians might strongly
disagree with a viewpoint does not make that viewpoint less valid or
less worthy of expression.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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