🚀 go-pugleaf

There is only one practical way to get this bill overturned. That is by lobbying
the political system. Given the paranoia level that often appears to surface in
these NGs, it is unlikely that a civil, believable campaign will result. The EFA is
probably the organisation that is best suited to put forward a coherent position,
so supporting it is probably the most practical solution.

It would be good if people could write to their politicians explaining why this
bill is impractical and will cost jobs in the industry without having any
significant impact on those aspects of the internet that concerns them. The first
thing that must be realised is that simply ranting and raving will do more harm
than good. Such letters won't even get to the politician, they'll end up in the
secretary's round file. After all what would you do with an abusive letter?

The second is that people must accept that many people believe censorship is
acceptable, even if we believe it is a misguided view. After all, it is present in
every other media without a public outcry. There is no point trying to convince
them censorship is morally wrong, you will have lost before you start - that is a
much bigger issue that won't be won in the near future.

This is a dollar oriented government and basically only understands the concepts of
financial impact. This is the avenue to attack the bill - the potential loss of
business revenue and the taxation cost of having any sort of credible monitoring
system in place. I don't believe any of the major political parties opposed the
bill on the grounds that censorship is immoral, rather that the bill was
impractical. I think this also speaks volumes on how this bill should be attacked
to get a consensus view on removing it.

The most likely outcome will be that it will be left on the statue books as an
inactive "token" to show that some forms of behaviour are deemed socially
unacceptable, but that's just a personal view.

Morris Oddbottle wrote:

> BUT!
> Is there anything we can really do about it?
> It's easy enough to bitch and complain about it, but HOW can we act against it?
> Please post any valid sugestions......

--
Mark Little                    |  ICQ: 13966098
http://brigadoon.apana.org.au  |  mailto:mark@brigadoon.apana.org.au
"His fingers harping the net-mesh" - The Net Menders, Brian Vrepont.