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Rudd displays his servitude to Murdoch and Hollywood Studios
by kurt Monday, Feb 8 2010, 5:36pm
international / mass media / commentary

Piss-weak Oz PM, Kevin ‘yes Rupert’ Rudd, dodged a direct answer to a question from Oz youth relating to a recent landmark court case which mega Hollywood studios and media moguls LOST – how sweet it is! As usual, our spineless, subservient PM – makes ya proud to be an Aussie lackey – skirted around what every commentator knows; Rudd does what he’s told by the BIG BUSINESS interests that placed him in Office. It’s enough to make you clean and oil your ‘weapon!’

It makes you laugh (and cry at times) to witness the jarring social disconnect our pollies display when carrying out instructions from ‘on high’ – BIG BUSINESS! It escapes our 'fearless' pollies that the most socially powerful position is the most popular. However, 'show pony, photo-op,' Rudd is well aware that he would be required to actually lead/work (God forbid) if he became a representative democratic leader – no Australian politicians from the major parties are qualified to lead geese let alone a nation – pathetic! [Note: not a word from Federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott on the issue, c’mmon Tony, where do YOU stand on information ‘management’/CENSORSHIP, you gutless, lackey, piece of shit?]

Read the following report and note the pathetic secondary discourse – ‘between the lines’ -- and fill your ‘Aussie chest’ with pride, cough, cough! Most commentators are aware that Rudd will legislate to protect the interests of the studios and media moguls; it’s just a matter of when!

Rudd non-committal on copyright law change chances
by Trevor Clarke (Computerworld)

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has shied away from committing to legislative change to copyright enforcement in the wake of the AFACT v iiNet decision at the Federal Court of Australia last week.

In a move welcomed by the ISP industry, Justice Cowdroy, dismissed a case by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) against iiNet, finding the ISP had not facilitated copyright infringement by its customers.

After the decision some commentators suggested there could be legislative reform put in place to strengthen copyright enforcement.

On the ABC's Q&A program last night, a special youth episode, Rudd, philosophised over intellectual copyright and the rights of artists to own their property.

The prime minister's comments came in response to a question from the audience: "It’s so easy to download music and movies from the internet and difficult to determine which sites are legitimate, what is your government’s position on the balance between young people’s desire to access affordable entertainment, against musicians desire to protect their creative output?"

"I can't say 'here is a dividing line up the middle," Rudd said.

"My son does this himself, I hope lawfully.

"Getting this balance right is important. I am not aware that we have current changes in mind.

"I'll read the decision of the court and see what they have to say. But secondly, look this is an open culture…if the laws are through the courts been interpreted in a particular way…then we'll have a look at the decision and see what we can do. But I don't want to frankly make an announcement on any policy."

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content rights holders should jointly formulate a code.

"I would hope to encourage the ISPs and the movie industries to sit down and try and come up with a code of conduct, and let’s see where that goes before we start leaping off down the path," Conroy told ABC's Hungry Beast.

"The problem in Australia today is that there is no agreement, there is no discussion, there is no dialogue and people resort to court.

"I have been trying for two years to encourage dialogue."

The Western Australia Internet Association said the iiNet win has brought certainty to consumers and industry and has implied that "the right of families to access the Internet" is protected.

West Australian Networks CEO Kevin Emery said the case was a victory for the Internet Industry.

"Anything that interferes with the transmission of data compromises the ability for an ISP to deliver maximum speed and reliability to consumers," Emergy said in a written statement.

The organisation said law enforcement should target individual users who breach copyright.

© 2010 IDG Communications

http://tinyurl.com/yfha6ea

COMMENTS

Oz gov: puppets to plutocracy
by Bonnie Malkin via stele - Telegraph UK Thursday, Feb 11 2010, 8:06pm

Google has refused to bow to a request by the Australian [CENSORSHIP] government to censor videos on YouTube.

Stephen Conroy, the communications minister, asked the search engine to "voluntarily" censor videos that fall within the government's broad new "refused classification" category.

However, Google said blocking access to videos in the category would lead to the removal of many politically controversial, but essentially harmless, clips.

The Australian government is preparing to introduce new legislation that will force internet service providers to block a blacklist of "refused classification" websites, in an attempt to clamp down on pornography and websites used by criminals.

YouTube's own guidelines already block videos featuring sex, violence, bestiality and child pornography. But under the "refused classification" rules, videos featuring subjects as diverse as euthanasia, drug use and graffiti, would also be banned.

Google said it would not voluntarily censor videos on these subjects because exposing the topics to public debate was vital for democracy.

Iarla Flynn, Google Australia's head of policy, said the company had a bias in favour of freedom of expression.

"The scope of RC is simply too broad and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information. RC includes the grey realms of material instructing in any crime from [painting] graffiti to politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia, and exposing these topics to public debate is vital for democracy," she told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

Mr Conroy said the government was currently in discussions with Google about how to resolve the issue.

"What we're saying is, well in Australia, these are our laws and we'd like you to apply our laws," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Hungry Beast program.

"Google at the moment filters an enormous amount of material on behalf of the Chinese government; they filter an enormous amount of material on behalf of the Thai government."

The government has been criticised from some quarters for attempting to control what its citizens could view on the internet.

Earlier this week government websites were subject to a cyberattack in protest at the filter.

http://tinyurl.com/y9qajl3