This Blog looks at the Internet Filter proposed, censorship, supply and demand, freedom and rights, some excerpts from Lady Chatterley’s lover and prohibition.
P.S That is Pyramid writing, where the first paragraph covers all topics to be discussed, neat hey, I learn new things more gooderer writer is.
The recent Internet filter proposition has got my goat, where the hell did that saying come from? I know I live regionally and should probably know. If its purely a livestock stealing reference then fine, maybe I'll start a new one, "Yea he has really nabbed my alpaca, I'm not happy," see how people go with that one. Good intentions are one thing, and taking action also has merit, but going down a road clearly in opposition to the general consensus of the masses with a plan that has more problems then an Icelandic Air traffic controller and I predict will disappear quicker then a fart in a fan factory. The Government will never be able to effectively regulate a thing such as the Internet; elephants can’t dance, that is, big regulated organisations cannot keep up with a free and dynamic environment such as the Internet. Did you notice the capital I in Internet, it is a place, a borderless country with no rules, no boundaries. The Internet has characteristics of a living entity, new sites grow and die, content is added and becomes stale and dated, it has areas that are not published, as well as direct links to people's computers at home.
Internet Map:
(Source: Someone who likes Start trek and has too much time)
It has many aspects of the free market economy. Example, I want to purchase a bit of software that crops photographs, I can search Google, find any number of items, and download the best or cheapest. There are no barriers to entry and shipping is done over the Internet. This is a very exciting time, never has intellectual property had so much liquidity. It is improbable, yet possible for a homeless person to go to there local library and using free software, revolutionise the whole industry and become a millionaire with a piece of software they have written in notepad on windows 98.
The Internet filter, with the proposed structure, would add little benefit, as it doesn’t block Peer 2 Peer file sharing programs and doesn't block sites with a HTTPS as opposed t HTTP (The S is for Secure) sites and so is basically irrelevant. Lets say for a second that it did work, all of a sudden all the viewers of the discussing material will start looking for a new source. The demand wont stop, and so 1+1= the supply will shift. A similar style of black market supply and demand can be seen in the Prohibition in America from 1920 to 1933 where Alcohol was band, giving rise to an underground bootleg movement, providing an excellent platform for growth for organised crime. Amateur-hibition, that’s what I am dubbing it. So if we apply that Black market Business model to the illicit material the filter is trying to reduce, we may see a reduction in the amount downloaded over the Internet, but a huge increase in social groups meeting on a Tuesday night to...eh...build a boat and swap boat building DVD's, yea that’s what were doing. Ok I just got a shiver. So yea there is a pathway I don't think we have thought about enough.
Banning books, banning of ideas, the constricting of freedom, that is what it boils down to. The sign of an intelligent mind is to be able to receive an idea, chew it like bubble gum and then reject it. I think I may have paraphrased a brilliant writer and added bubble gum as my addition. I may go to writing hell for that one. I guess writing hell would be writing on season 42 of two and a half men, working with constantly blunt pencils on a team of 23 high level autistic people on work experience and finding out every episode is censored and doesn't make it to air.
The book Lady Chatterley’s Lover was banned in Australia due to the graphic nature of its content. The author dropped the F bomb four times and the C bomb 10 times, that Foxy Cat is crazy! If he had of used fiddlesticks and lady garden it would have been fine. I am sure as the censorship debate raged excerpts would have been read out sections of the book as part of question time. Brilliant, the mental image of these stale old men, grey wispy hair and tweed suits smelling of cigarettes and 70's sexism, still able to look down their big red noses as some young whipper-snapper read out sentences about sweaty bodies interlocked and firm bosoms heaving. There were a few hot members ...of parliament that day. "Order! Order me a copy of that saucy stuff. "The member for Kings Cross will remain dressed"
So stick censorship in your [content blocked] and put that into you mother's [content blocked] also. [Content blocked] the step on the way into Parliament and don't [content blocked] what the government does. The word that was blocked in the previous sentence was "mind." Go back and read the paragraph again swapping "content blocked" with "mind." To censor something is a very powerful action in itself, especially if people do not have the option to evaluate for themselves.
Censorship and protection are interesting concepts. I believe Australia is a very heavily regulated society. Honestly I never noticed until I went over seas. Being fined by a police officer for not wearing a bicycle helmet is ridiculous and here is where the argument is applied "but it saves lives" yes it does, but it is a sacrifice of freedom and choice. It is situations where I can park my common sense as the warm blanket of legislation protect me. Of course it saves lives and people should be educated in the dangers, the risk, and born of that education, make an informed decision. Who knows, the cause, effect, decision triangle may sink in as a habit that could flow on into other aspects of life.
I read a survey recently looking at behavior and risk, the survey measured the speed people drove across a level crossing when there were no warning lights as trains potentially approached. The cars had an average, with some people going faster, accepting more risk. As the trees were gradually felled on the side of the crossing, and visibility increased, the average speed increased. People have a level of acceptable risk.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and the next thing you know your fishing company is being bought out in a hostile takeover, which seriously undervalues the assets. Damn Bastard, "I taught you how to fish, and this is the thanks I get!" The power of stopping someone accessing content is nothing compared with the power of empathy. "Teach your children well." Cat Stevens just sat down beside me. "Teach them empathy." He has his acoustic guitar out and has started into Father and Son. "Let them understand the beauty they possess inside, and the underlying problems that drive the behaviors that we would ban." I am standing up on a soapbox gesticulating wildly as Cat hammers out that sweet acoustic melody. "Bestow the knowledge that with great freedom comes great responsibility!" A little bit of spit came out as I yelled; I may be getting too emotional. In a frenzy of acoustic harmony and nonconformist rage the world is changed and freedom is restored."
The other option is Cat Stevens and I are black-flagged as dissidents, woken in the middle of the night by homeland security and disappeared for questioning for a period of up to 48 hours without a warrant or reason supplied. Liberties are never taken in bounds; they are chiseled away with quiet scratches, careful to keep from stirring the complacent masses chewing their bubble gum. Now back to the television. Again with the paraphrasing the quotes and simply adding bubble gum, what is with that?
Jonathan Nolan
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