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OCAU News |
ACMA Blacklist (Allegedly) Leaked
(5 Comments)
(link)
Thursday, 19-March-2009 14:41:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The Australian Internet Censorship debate has taken a turn for the farcical, with not just one site, but the entire ACMA blacklist allegedly leaked onto the net. I guess this improves the situation slightly, because previously people could be fined $11,000 a day for linking things on the list - even though we're not allowed to know what is on the list, so we can't actually know if we're linking things on it or not!
Ahh, you might say, just don't link kiddy porn sites and you'll be ok. If only it were that simple: But about half of the sites on the list are not related to child porn and include a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist. Even the site listing the list has been added to the list. So has a list of sites banned in Denmark. Not the actual sites banned in Denmark, just a page listing the sites that are banned in Denmark. Given the content of the black list could in theory change at a near-constant rate, how are we meant to know what can and cannot be discussed anymore? Or do we just wait for the takedown notices to flood in?
Jeez, just putting this story together I very nearly linked a page on the blacklist. That would have been a fun experience, I bet. I can't believe how determined our Government seems to be, to make us look like the backwards cousins of the technology community.
Anyway, annoyed people are using this info to bait ACMA, testing their ability to censor the net. "If ACMA blacklists their own Wikipedia page, well that says it all doesn't it? If they don't, that is a very, very strong reason to call them hypocrites for making vastly different responses to two sites linking to the very same material."
There's a rapidly-growing thread about this here.
Update: This list is apparently NOT authentic - but it's certainly drawn a lot of attention to the problems associated with the ACMA maintaining, and then publishing (even if only to ISPs), a secret list of content they DON'T want people accessing.
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All original content copyright James Rolfe.
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