03-22-2010, 11:49 AM
So down this way we've been having a big ol' mess with the clueless politicos wanting to regulate our Internets for us. The only problem is, the idiots wanting to do the regulating don't have a clue what they're doing.
Exhibit A: The Internet filter
Not enough that we get that brand new copyright enforcement law (which is better titled as "make entertainment companies into policemen") even though the Justice Minister can't actually back up his claims regarding industry losses due to piracy - and I asked him personally - now we get told that we've got our own brand-spanking new Internet filter up and running.
It's voluntary for now, of course, and certainly only going to affect those dirty dirty people looking for CP. Or so they say; we don't actually know, because the blacklist is secret. Ten bucks says it won't be a year before something shady goes down with this thing, assuming we don't yell enough to get them to get rid of it.
http://stopthefilter.org.nz
Exhibit B: The ACTA treaty
This one is perhaps even more funny.
MP Clare Curran made a post demanding more transparency about the super-secret-squirrel ACTA treaty, and specifically the negotiations happening here in April.
Apparently our old pal the Justice Minister, the one who told me he didn't have statistics but "everybody knows" file-sharing is destroying music (just ignore those record profits!), was trying to keep this whole thing a secret, including the location of the negotiations.
But oops, looks like the Internet pwned his ass: http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/secu...nue-leaked
These are the people that want to tell us how we can and can't use information online, but they can't even keep their damn meeting a secret.
Exhibit A: The Internet filter
Not enough that we get that brand new copyright enforcement law (which is better titled as "make entertainment companies into policemen") even though the Justice Minister can't actually back up his claims regarding industry losses due to piracy - and I asked him personally - now we get told that we've got our own brand-spanking new Internet filter up and running.
It's voluntary for now, of course, and certainly only going to affect those dirty dirty people looking for CP. Or so they say; we don't actually know, because the blacklist is secret. Ten bucks says it won't be a year before something shady goes down with this thing, assuming we don't yell enough to get them to get rid of it.
http://stopthefilter.org.nz
Exhibit B: The ACTA treaty
This one is perhaps even more funny.
MP Clare Curran made a post demanding more transparency about the super-secret-squirrel ACTA treaty, and specifically the negotiations happening here in April.
Apparently our old pal the Justice Minister, the one who told me he didn't have statistics but "everybody knows" file-sharing is destroying music (just ignore those record profits!), was trying to keep this whole thing a secret, including the location of the negotiations.
But oops, looks like the Internet pwned his ass: http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/secu...nue-leaked
These are the people that want to tell us how we can and can't use information online, but they can't even keep their damn meeting a secret.