Internet Censorship

It looks like the Australian government is trying to censor the Internet. Again! The largest ISPs are on board this time so I wonder what they got in return. Were they not opposed the last time?

The really sad part is that I can see this happening in Canada. We have just been lucky to avoid it. The Conservative Party has quite a few Reform Party crackpots left from when the parties merged and they would be the ones to contemplated censoring the Internet, "for the good of the people".

Telstra

It's official. Telstra is no longer a monopoly. One day I hope to say those words about Bell but I ain't gonna hold my breath. The question is, can the Australian government manage the National Broadband Network well enough so they don't squander this once-in-a-century opportunity. It would be a shame if it was wasted, but the only thing worse than a private sector monopoly, is a government owned monopoly. I'll be watching this with interest.

Automated Revenue Generator

Automated speed trap systems increase revenue because they avoid the costly overhead of paying a real policeman to write tickets. And since revenue generation is the whole point of speeding enforcement, such automated systems are an easy sell with police forces and politicians.

They are are so eager to implement these systems, they must not test them very thoroughly, as is this story from Australia demonstrates. One would think that a flaw in an automated speed trap system, would be grounds for automatic refunds for all the tickets issued by the system, but apparently it is not. After all, that's a lot of revenue to give up.

I wonder if my brother was caught by this system. He has been known to drive briskly on the odd occasion. ^__^

Bell Would Fight

Wow! Telstra, Australia's largest telco, has agreed to switch its customers to the government run fibre network, when it becomes available. How did they do that? Actually, as this article indicates, it likely wasn't a difficult decision, which suggests Telstra might have people resembling businessmen running it. I wonder how Bell would react under similar circumstances? Somehow I have a feeling Bell would fight, rather than co-operate.

Hooning

Lewis Hamilton was charged under an anti-hoon law for doing a burnout in his road car when he left the track after the Australian Grand Prix qualifying session. Hoon?

Trust those Aussies to come up with words the rest of us have never heard before. I thought it might be a contraction of Hooligan since Australians have a penchant for shortened words, but Wikipedia doesn't mention this possibility. Google wasn't any help either.

If you are going to invent new words, at least have the foresight to record their etymology. Especially if you are going to charge well known race car drivers under a law named after your invented words. I mean, really. ^_^

Wimpy Canadians

This would be funny if it were so darned serious. Compare the Canadian ACTA delegation's concerns to New Zealand's concerns. It looks like the wimpy Canadians were just checking grammar and spelling. Well, thankfully they had more to say than the Australians. ^_^

Common Sense Down Under

A group of copyright holders sued Australian ISP iiNET, claiming that they were liable for the infringement activities of their users. In a sudden outbreak of common sense, the court ruled against the rights holders. More importantly, the ruling clearly explains why cutting off Internet access as punishment for copyright infringement is unjust. Hopefully this common sense will leak into other Commonwealth countries. Micheal Geist and Howard Knopf offer differing opinions on the ruling.

Aussie Internet Filters Again

It seems that some people just can't give up on dumb ideas. The Australian Government wants to filter the Internet. Wow, nice to know Western democracies have so much in common with Communist China. Of course all the usual bogeymen are mentioned to justify the censorship. Think of the children!