<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On 20/07/2010, at 1:10 PM, Phillip Grasso wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">Skeeve, any chance you can reach out to these folks and educate them on reality, i think the whole IT community wants to help the children,</blockquote><div><br></div><div>See, not everyone believes that.</div><div><br></div><div>One of the consistent messages Conroy has been sending is that</div><div>ISPs have had decades to "help children," but chose not to for reasons</div><div>of profit. He said as much to my face in the Green Room at SBS in March</div><div>2009.</div><div><br></div><div>To restate the argument in less-subtle words: Conroy believes that the</div><div>ISP industry is prepared to condone child abuse if we're paid enough</div><div>money.</div><div><br></div><div>Let that sink in for a few minutes.</div><div><br></div><div>It's not him alone. Some of my opinion pieces at ABC The Drum/Unleashed</div><div>have had one persistent commenter who has cut-and-pasted the same</div><div>argument over and over and over again:</div><div><br></div><div>Search for comments by "phillipa" in this article:</div><div><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2536879.htm">http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2536879.htm</a></div><div>"Pip" in this one:</div><div><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2848297.htm">http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2848297.htm</a></div><div>"Jessica," "Rhonda," and "Wesley," in this one:</div><div><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2952316.htm">http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2952316.htm</a></div><div><br></div><div>All follow the same script, quoting the same discredited statistics to </div><div>support a line of reasoning that says people like you and me are </div><div>perfectly happy to enable child pornography on the internet as long</div><div>as we're all making enough money out of it. Which is the kind of thing</div><div>that'd get you punched if you said it to someone's face in a pub.</div><div><br></div><div>Of course, the <i>actual</i> people making money from it are the censorware</div><div>vendors who are trying to create a new legally-mandated market for</div><div>themselves in Australia by lobbying our clueless communications</div><div>minister. Couldn't possibly ask the government to do anything <i>effective</i>,</div><div>because continued availability of child abuse material is, for censorware</div><div>vendors, the goose that keeps laying the golden egg. What better</div><div>way to make money than to convince a government to make a product</div><div>you sell mandatory?</div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite">Suppose one day, a future government wants to fully legalize abortion,</blockquote><div><br></div><div>Didn't they do that in the 1970's? Abortion was settled as a controversial</div><div>issue in all but the minds of frothing extremists about 40 years ago, and </div><div>its legal availability is supported by over 80% of the population, which is</div><div>as close to "unanimous" as you get in a pluralistic society.</div><div><br></div><div>They even sell pills to do it these days, that's how accepted it is.</div></div><div><br></div><div>But those aforementioned frothing extremists are perfectly entitled to</div><div>launch political arguments to make their case if they wish, and I condemn</div><div>the actions of our clueless government, who has used classification</div><div>guidelines to censor them on multiple occasions.</div><div><br></div><div>What you're presenting as a dire future scenario has <i>already happened.</i></div><div><i></i>Pages on <a href="http://abortiontv.com">abortiontv.com</a> were censored by ACMA due to their belief</div><div>that they were RC, and ACMA testified in Senate Estimates last year to</div><div>say that that wasn't the first such site they'd restricted. Anti-abortion</div><div>propaganda was on the ACMA blacklists leaked last March too; And</div><div>the only thing that prevented the South Australian "AbortSA" MLC</div><div>Candidate from receiving a takedown notice for his website was the</div><div>fact that it was hosted offshore.</div><div><br></div><div>So lets not talk about "future governments," eh? The one we have now</div><div>is plenty bad enough.</div><div><br></div> - mark<br><div>
<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">--</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">Mark Newton Email: <a href="mailto:newton@internode.com.au">newton@internode.com.au</a> (W)</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">Network Engineer Email: <a href="mailto:newton@atdot.dotat.org">newton@atdot.dotat.org</a> (H)</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">Internode Pty Ltd Desk: +61-8-82282999</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">"Network Man" - Anagram of "Mark Newton" Mobile: +61-416-202-223</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></font></font></div></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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