Comments on: An open letter on virtual worlds for Senator Conroy

By: China’s virtual currency regulation and Conroy’s filter : The Metaverse Journal – Australia’s Virtual World News Service

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:47:42 +0000

[...] Government’s ban on using virtual currencies to purchase real world goods, as well as the recent flare-up in concerns around the impact of the Federal Government’s internet filtering legislation on [...]

By: Artfox Daviau

Artfox Daviau — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:00:51 +0000

The film classification board does rate imported games, but as far as i know does not have the power to rate downloaded ones.

Secondly, a colleague from the ABC recently contacted Conroys office and they Categorically Denied that SL will be banned !

By: Artfox Daviau

Artfox Daviau — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:59:07 +0000

totally agree the film classification board does rate imported games, but as far as i know does not have the power to rate downloaded ones. Secondly, a colleague from the ABC recently contacted Conroys office and they Categorically Denied that SL will be banned ! hehe

By: Flibble

Flibble — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:32:13 +0000

ACMA doesnt rate the internet or the online games.. that's the classification's job. I'm not defending Conroy, he's an idiot, but there is so much disinformation about what is going on it's ridiculous

By: Artfox Daviau

Artfox Daviau — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:00:51 +0000

The film classification board does rate imported games, but as far as i know does not have the power to rate downloaded ones.

Secondly, a colleague from the ABC recently contacted Conroys office and they Categorically Denied that SL will be banned !

By: Artfox Daviau

Artfox Daviau — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:59:07 +0000

By: Flibble

Flibble — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:32:13 +0000

By: Eggbert

Eggbert — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 07:07:28 +0000

Watch! Start calling to put a end to all this. The gov has no buisness in our homes its time for Australia to pull there finger out. I cant do it alone and others cant do it for us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmQfm0TXAYg&feat…

By: couldbe yue

couldbe yue — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:58:39 +0000

If this is true then I strongly suggest that those living in Australia do two things:
1. Join the friends of the ABC. The ABC always needs friends, it doesn't matter who is in power – both sides think the ABC is biased lol
2. contact your MP and register your disapproval at them over their attitude. I know that Australia has been living in the Menzies era for a while now courtesy of your last PM but it is ok to join the 21st Century.

By: TateruNino

TateruNino — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:00:17 +0000

No, we've got no constitutionally guaranteed rights here. We have things like free-speech and so forth by consensus, not by constitutional guarantee.

The 'ban' of which we speak is basically a proposed national block to websites and services that are found to contain (in whole or in part) content that is found objectionable according to some not terribly clear standard. The block is to be implemented by hardware installed at every Internet Service and Connectivity Provider in the country and administered by…. someone. Who would be administering the filtering hardware has not been make clear. That would allow the blocks to be updated, more or less at the touch of a button.

By: Sigmund Leominster

Sigmund Leominster — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:03:08 +0000

The effort involved in enforcing some kind of “ban” strikes me as being so huge that I strongly suspect that the suggested “law” will not come about. There is an awful lot of commerce and education going on in virtual worlds that would be affected by a blanket ban. Many universities have Second Life locations that are restricted access to the general SL public, as do some corporations/businesses. I don't know if Australia has a constitutional “free speech” clause, but any lawyer could see that banning access to a virtual world is a direct infringement of such freedom of speech. There is no way for a government to know if a citizen is in SL to meet a friend or to have simulated sex with simulated donkeys. And even if it is the latter, a gornment should have no right to decide what is or is not OK.

Of course, we should expect the argument of “it's to protect the children” to be used as a brick-bat to support censorship, but folks need to remember that the brick-bat is really a red herring. And as a mature democracy, I expect the Aussies to be able to argue against any attempts at free speech censorship by their elected representatives. If there's anything we can have confidence in, it's that the Aussies know how to put up a fight and won't take bullying from politicians!

By: Net filtering and virtual worlds: reactions : The Metaverse Journal – Australia’s Virtual World News Service

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:49:04 +0000

[...] last night’s story on the Australian Government’s internet content filtering legislation and its potential [...]