back to article Aussie classification site hacked in censorship protest

Hackers broke into the Australian government's film and videogame classification website yesterday and posted a message opposing comms minister Stephen Conroy's trial of internet filtering. At the time of writing the site is still unavailable - but here is a screengrab of the front page kindly sent in by an Antipodean Reg …

COMMENTS

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  1. Steve
    Flame

    Download link not working

    Perhaps they should distribute via bittorrent! :D

  2. Andy ORourke
    Joke

    AmanfromMars?

    Reading the text on the defaced page, seems the man from the red planet is out there in the wild :-)

  3. Jonathan

    Comment

    Quote:Conroy originally denied the leaked addresses were the Austrastralian Communications and Media Authority(ACMA)

    Whats Austrastralian? Is that like Super Australia? (typo note).

    What motivates this Conroy guy? Why is he so determined to ban games for people over the age of 13 and all porn? Hasnt he ever cranked one out?

  4. Jeremy
    Flame

    April Fools

    I keep thinking that on April 1st, this wanker Conroy is going to appear on TV and go "Hahahahah! April Fool! Got you all BIG TIME, didn't I!?!? Hahahah! Joke's over now!"

    But I suspect he really is a big a wanker as I think he is... Wake up Australia and put this dickhead against the wall where he belongs.

    I wonder how long it will be before El Reg gets blocked for being consistently against his plan and therefore dangerous to delicate Australian minds?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Pull their pants down (under)

    Stalin has been long dead - let's try and keep it that way.

    "Mr. Brady, it is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" - Inherit The Wind (1960), a marvellous movie which highlights the pomposity of politicians attempting to use an issue of the day, beholden by the ignorant, to further their own political gain but only end up looking stupid, bullying and shallow. Highly recommended viewing.

    Sound familiar Mr Conroy, or Ms J. Smith for that matter ?

  6. Seán

    Stupid Pigs

    Why block the sites at all. Let the pervs visit them then go and kick their doors down and arrest them under existing laws. Only monarchists could possible regard censorship as being the lesser of two evils.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I saw Q&A last night

    ... and was disturbed at how committed and blinkered Conroy is (even though, as I've posted before, I believe the censorship effort is not about protecting anyone). He really doesn't see any problem with this - only a couple of technical hurdles that he thinks will shortly be overcome. And he's still pushing the "protect the children" line for all it's worth, even though most of the audience and most of the viewers can see right through it.

  8. Lionel Baden
    Happy

    @jeremy

    That would be so funny

    I would so piss myself laughing !!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Mr. Mugabe to be.....?!

    Sounds like he is following some of his African counterparts, like Zimbabwe or the likes...

    Mugabe and his henchmen couldn´t have done it any better.

    But itś like all over the world... those &£$$&$%£$£$%$ politicians want total control and be able to ¨remove¨ anyone who could potentially come in their way....

    no matter what....

    Best regards

  10. Sillyfellow
    Stop

    YOU are the enemy

    anyone who disagrees with the master leaders are the enemy. that means almost all of us who can see and think for ourselves.

    that is all.

    thank you.

  11. Jeff

    Australasia

    It's the name given to the region encompassing Oceania (Aus, NZ, pacific islands), and those parts of south east Asia who haven't told us to get stuffed (Papua New Guinea and parts of Indonesia (when they're not trying to blow us up)).

    See here for the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australiasia

  12. rob

    We are against it

    Please, people of the world, do not think for a minute that Australians are taking this lying down

    Those who have found out about the plan are categorically against it, and those who haven't heard about it simply haven't been notified yet.

    There is a working group www.getup.org.au that has a campaign against this censorship, which is located here http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet

    If you are Australian, please visit there to find out some more about how you can prevent this flawed system from being imposed on us.

  13. Tony Paulazzo
    Flame

    Double plus good

    Yesterday the chocolate rations were raised. Praise Big Brother.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why blacklist?

    A lot of people have asked if they have a list of child porn sites, why don't they shut them down and/or arrest the people who visit them?

    1) Those would require actual effort, a blacklist allows them to do almost nothing while still looking like they're doing something.

    2) Most of the sites are hosted in foreign countries.

    3) Some of those countries either have poor law enforcement (e.g. Russia) or have more lenient laws (e.g. USA, I know, that's saying something, isn't it?).

    4) Some of the websites aren't actually illegal in Australia either, but apparently they're "unwanted".

    5) Even when they succeed in taking a website down, catching the people who run it can be a whole lot harder. If they can't do that, the website will probably pop right back up at a new address.

    Regarding arresting visitors. That would require either:

    1) Gain control of the website. Which is more even difficult than shutting it down.

    2) Monitoring every internet user to see what sites they visit. Which, needless to say, is objectionable.

    Finally, I suspect they secretly realize this would catch more people than they know what to do with. In my opinion it could easily be that more 1% of all internet users.

  15. xjy
    Paris Hilton

    Brain gangrene

    Who needs Stalinist, Nazi or Taliban Dictatorship when you have Freedom like this??

    Now, whatever possessed me to entitle this "Brain gangrene"?

    Fucking maggots... our Latin American comrades have got the right idea, labelling these reactionary thugs "gusanos" (maggots) - or they would have, only maggots have their uses in cleaning up dead flesh ... ah, so there was a connection after all. Silly me...

    (Paris cos she might be wondering if Big Brother is related to Bigus Dickus...)

  16. Michael Nielsen
    Stop

    What I don't understand

    Someone defines something as unwanted (like Australian government, etc), and decides that it is unwanted for anyone to see a pair of tits, complain about the government or anything else that some elite group decides is unwanted, and it is censored.

    Unwanted is a very nice term, because it depends entirely on the person (or persons) who are enforcing it, point of view. Which means when the government changes, so does the censored list, and it is not a large stretch of the imagination to see that anti-government sites quickly appearing on the list.

    No Democratic government should ever be able to levie censorship, nor to control censorship, as that is a huge breech of all democratic principles, and principles of freedom.

    I also don't care who defines what is unwanted, whether it is a Priest, Politicians, Psychologists, et. al. No one should have the right to tell an adult what they can and cannot read, or see, be it movies, websites or pornography. I find it quite demeaning that such thoughts of control exists in society. Any adult is capable of choosing what is not appropriate, but no adult should decide what other adults should find appropriate.

    However, there are limits to free speech, such as inciting murder, libel, or violence, and thus anyone who publishes materials are subject to laws, and thus it is the publisher who must answer to the law, this means if someone can prove something is a lie (libel), or otherwise illegal, then it is up to the courts to decide if any laws are broken, and prosecute the publisher accordingly,.

    The benefit of using the courts is that there isn't any secrecy about what is happening, everything is open and can be audited by the general public, and groups, which means, if someone is trying to block anti-government or constructive critisme of eg. Religion. Best of all, in the case of Child abuse, the abuse is stopped, and not just hidden.

    That is the focus needs to be on curing the disease, and not hiding the symptoms. Shutting down sites, and the producers - is curing the disease - censorship is a poor band aid on the symptoms of the disease, and has a tendency to be abused by those in power, to cover other things (defined as unwanted).

    The wish to prevent child abuse is admirable, and a noble cause, however, I have yet to see any real efforts in preventing child abuse, I have seen censorship, being presented as a solution, however the only effect of censorship, is that the whole nasty business is driven underground, and hidden from public view. Unfortunately these measures do not reduce the number of children being abused, it just hides it from the public eye.

    The current emphasis on child porn may also have a significant dark side, which is the inability of people with certain tendencies (or afflictions), to ask for help, and to receive treatment. This aspect concerns me, as it might - as with all addicts - cause an unending cycle, where they are unable to break out, and keep going for the bigger and bigger fix, but unlike other addicts they cannot ask for help, without their lives being destroyed, permanently. - Something to think about!

  17. Dylan Fahey

    Talibans control Australia?

    The Taliban want total control over everything, women, sex, little boys. I didn't know they also infiltrated the government in Australia.

    It's up to the parents to 'control' what their kids see on the net. A little government ban here, a little ban there, and soon, you live in Nothern Pakistan where girls can't even go to school, or Germany in 1939.

    The government needs to know that 'they' are not the deciders. For government to be good, it needs to govern least.

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