[AusNOG] And it continues - ISP to block sites bill..

[Mark Newton]

On Mar 27, 2015, at 8:58 AM, Nick Stallman <nick at agentpoint.com> wrote:

> Generally there aren't any websites that infringe copyright, it is P2P or usenet.
> So are they talking about disconnecting the piraters themselves?
> Or just Pirate Bays which would be completely ineffective (and technically they don't infringe copyright)?

Again: 

If you earn a living from a regulated industry, it’s incumbent on you to know what the politicians are doing.

A commercial pilot who doesn’t know about CASA regulations will end up unemployed and/or in jail. An engineer at an ISP is no different.

For example, you should know about Village Roadshow’s history of political donations, and how that’s likely to cause politicians to behave.

You should know that blocking efforts that’ve been attempted (and failed) in other parts of the world will be tried here because while Australia is almost never first, it consistently earns accolades for being dumbest.

The Bill is targeted at websites which facilitate copyright infringement. It’s not aimed at P2P, it’s aimed at TPB: Websites hosting torrent files, search engines, magnet links.

A judge needs to consider a variety of factors, including whether a website shows “disregard” for copyright. So Australia is about to legislate to make it mandatory for website operators to pay attention to Hollywood’s feelings. A postmodern Internet, what a time to be alive! “Tuck your shirt in, sonny, you really need to improve your attitude or there’ll be a whuppin’."

There’ll be a deal, the ALP will fall into line because Shorten is utterly useless, Village Roadshow and its wholly owned subsidiaries have been paying more in donations than the CFMEU, and you guys have been asleep at the switch.  Anyone who thinks the ALP is a tool of the trade union movement is a dollar short and a decade late: If they were a trade unionist tool they wouldn’t have legislated to make strikes illegal in 2008. They’re now owned by property developers, banks, and overseas rights holders. 

Once again, the politicians simply will not care about technological defects. Completely irrelevant, if you’re going to give them an argument based on packets per second or the existence of workarounds or whatever, you’re having the wrong conversation.  You’ll get a polite nod, then your meeting will be over and you’ll have achieved nothing. They will steamroll right over the top of you with the full knowledge that doing so is harmless, because you’ve been unable to harm them on any of the other occasions they’ve steamrolled you.

Consider market gardening. Maybe onions, at least you’ll have Canberra representation.

  - mark