Business 21C - Published by UTS Business

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1. Gareth Parker says:

   Feb 28th 2011 at 1:26 pm

   Hey BC21, I have to leave a comment. I'm not an avid reader/listener/paying-attention-er, but when I saw on Facebook that you were discussing internet filtering, I had to put my two cents in, simply because of how I feel about censorship in general. You started off by acknowledging that the Government wants to support the development of the internet, and while I recognize that the current Government is taking steps to help expand it, they're going about in the wrong direction, and it seems to me that rather than trying to help the development of the internet as we know it, they're trying to form the internet to their tastes. Yes, our internet does need serious speed increases, but there were talks of making the NBN mandatory, and it's going to take years upon years. The internet should be SUPPORTED, not FORCED. From the NBN to censorship, it would seem as though the Government doesn't want to help the internet Now the whole censorship thing hinges on the idea that the Government can be trusted. Why shouldn't it be? We're a first world country that promotes freedom. But what everyone should understand is that the Government can never be trusted. I'm not talking about Government conspiracies or alien cover-ups, I'm talking about temptation for abuse. We all know the basic laws to stop people in power from abusing you. Regular elections, Freedom of Political Parties, Separating power from the State and Federal Governments and so on. Do you ever consider why we have these rules in place? It's because we can never, NEVER, trust the Government to just be good on their own. We have these rules because we all know that with that much power comes the huge temptation to abuse it. If we just trusted the Government to do the right thing, why not just let the Federal Government make all the laws? Also, change the constitution without a vote. Oh, and while we're at it, why not get rid of the Judicial process, let the Government be Judge Jury and Executioner. I think my point is made. We have regulations against the Government in place for a reason. Just because the internet wasn't around when said regulations were put in place doesn't mean that we should ignore the idea, and let the Government do whatever they want to the internet You said that one justification for censorship is that Governments have the right, the responsibility, to enforce the law. There's a difference between enforcing the law and censorship. Like you said yourself, you regulate the act, not the medium with which it's committed. The Government has the right to stop, say, people from stabbing each other. They DON'T have the right to ban knives from everyone. Or to ban parents giving under 18s sharp objects. We hear all these claims that all the Government is trying to do is protect the children. This is falsities. If it were true, they wouldn't make it mandatory, they wouldn't force this upon everyone. What of people who don't intend to have children, or don't live with their children? Block their internet? And if we assume that they mean protect the children being hurt, we can assume that's a load of bullshit. If they have 300 sites known to be child porn, why block them? Out of sight out of mind? What are the Government doing to stop those sights at the source? You can't just close your eyes and pretend they don't exist You made a comment that the internet is not above and beyond the law. I agree. This is why there are laws against child porn over the internet, or death threats over the internet. Laws are there for the internet, again, this doesn't give the Government the right of censorship Now, while we're still going in chronological order of your podcast, let's move onto the the topic of Child Abuse. Again. Fear-Mongering Bullshit. We all know this. The Government always pushes sympathy buttons to get their way, and to demonize their opponents. Child Abuse has nothing to do with censorship. Again, I refer to my previous point. If you KNOW of cases of child abuse, don't block it and ignore it, stop it all together. Children aren't being abused by seeing porn sites at the age of 13, hell, we all know they've been looking at porn since before the internet. And the refused classifications sites? Yeah, no, they aren't being abused by seeing that either. Abused by who? Themselves? Look at the top of your browser, see that red button? One click away from not seeing anything on the internet. Looking at a site isn't abusing yourself You've touched on the topic of the broad terms for refusing classifications, and you're right, they're preposterous. If I wanted, I could make a justification of how THIS site supports terrorist acts, not because you do, but because there's no strict way of judging if something is harmful or not. I'm not even going to touch on Cyber-Terrorism, or Cyber-Anything, because the term doesn't make sense. It's not Cyber-Terrorism, it's terrorism. It's not Cyber-Bullying, it's just bully. Do we have aeroplane-terrorism, or playground-bullying? As for your "What if the Government became corrupt like Egypt", go look at the beginning of my post. We must always assume that the government WILL become corrupt without our interference, it's how we keep our Government clean. Which also works well into the topic of the black list. And how people shouldn't get to see it, in case they become aware of the sites they didn't know about. Tell me, if we can't trust the Government, why would we let them have a list above the eyes of the public? Are the Government above the law? Are they allowed to just decide on laws without letting the public know about them? Do Governments get to put a person to trial without letting the person know? We have an open judicial process for a reason Community Standards, Morals and Ethic. They tie well together. And well with the fact that the censorship is trying to dictate it. I think you said it well when you said "One mans unacceptable is another mans acceptableness". Our laws are there to protect peoples rights, not to dictate their thoughts. And it should remain that way Ok, I'm done going on about everything bad, here's MY suggestion Education. Lots and lots of it. Free education ofcourse. In school, it's mandatory that everyone has to have atleast 6 months of IT. Throughout all their schooling. In this day and age, shouldn't we make it a mandatory subject, along with English Maths Science and Geography. IT is ATLEAST as important to people these days than say, finding x in a quadratic equation Free programs to help protect yourself. The Government should buy out Avast, or Norton, let them continue their own work, but make the program free. The Government should HELP people protect themselves, not force it on them Supporting the most used programs. Like Firefox, IE, Chrome. The Government should help support them, help them help people protect themselves from phishing sites Ok, really, the last three paragraphs were meant to be longer, but I got tired of writing all this. I think you get my points

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2. Gareth Parker says:

   Feb 28th 2011 at 1:27 pm

   Also, your software is broken, it took out all of my line breaks. So I'll repost this on Facebook for you

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3. Felix says:

   May 7th 2011 at 5:18 pm

   Weird but I read througgh the entire post...

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