Weekend rant.
China), and parental nations alike. The latest news is that Australia’s attempt to protect their children from the ravages of the Internet and the dark recesses of the human psyche is that their national filtering efforts cannot actually be opted out of. Australia passed a law in 2007 creating a national requirement that all bad stuff be filtered from the Internet by ISPs. Of course if their legislature had even the smallest clue they would realize just how difficult a task that is. Put aside, for now, the greater threat to freedom that arises when a government gains control over any media; the threat that they extend the definition of “bad content” to include dissent.
The Internet is rapidly becoming the repository of the sum total of all human knowledge, communication, and experience. As such it is a terrible threat to non-democratic nations (
There are millions of websites devoted to the types of things Australia’s government would like to shield their citizens from. Just how do you filter that access? As anyone who has ever looked at the problem knows, there are two solutions. One, have a huge team of people constantly reviewing sites and adding the “bad” ones to a big list. Or two, create a list of “good” sites and block access to everything that is not on that list. Either one is difficult to accomplish. Australia is going with the black list idea:
The Australian government first revealed its filtering initiative in 2007, which it expected to cost AUS$189 million to implement. That money would go toward imposing filtering requirements on ISPs, who would have to use the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s official blacklist, which is in turn based on the country’s National Classification Scheme.
–Ars technica
moving forward with a ban on online gambling that competes with their own lucrative public-private initiative to skim gambling revenue in their state. A judge in Kentucky has allowed a suit to proceed whereby the State of Kentucky will hold the online gaming companies liable for blocking access to their sites from Kentucky. You heard that right. They are under the impression that a website operator knows where their visitors are! The penalty for not complying with Kentucky’s demands? The online gaming domain names are forfeit. Huh? What? PartyPoker.com could lose their domain name over this?
Australia is not alone in having stupid law makers (understatement of the year). Kentucky is
Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that he will hear arguments on Nov. 17 before deciding whether to give Kentucky’s state government control of 141 domain names
Do I need to point out that it is already illegal for US citizens to engage in online gambling? That the people of Kentucky could face criminal prosecution for engaging in these activities? Why doesn’t Kentucky go after those criminals who are sending their money overseas to Gibralter (home to PartyPoker.com) instead of squandering it in river boats? It would be easier to accomplish, and a little more direct. Of course, if those people are in jail they are not in Kentucky Casinos.
Australia should just annex Kentucky. Finally there would be a safe place for children to grow up; where they could not be exposed to the evil Internet and the ravages of online gambling.
