Gentoo Archives: gentoo-au

From: Ivan Lazar Miljenovic <ivan.miljenovic@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-au@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-au] Fwd: Police Censorship Bill and Whirlpool lawsuit
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 02:28:29
Message-Id: 20070923121952.69ad23f5@Gentoo
1 I got this off the humbug mailing list... someone on this mailing list
2 might be interested, so I'm forwarding it on:
3
4
5 Folks,
6
7 What follows is a re-post (with permission) of an email to EFA members
8 on Friday. I encourage everyone to visit http://www.efa.org.au/ and
9 consider joining Electronic Frontiers Australia, for your own sake.
10
11 ----- Forwarded message from Dale Clapperton <efachair@×××××××.au> -----
12
13 Subject: EFA member update: Police Censorship Bill and Whirlpool Lawsuit
14
15 Dear EFA Member,
16
17 The last week has been an extremely busy one for EFA, so this is an
18 opportune time to let you know what EFA has been doing to protect your
19 rights, and the rights of all Australian Internet users.
20
21 Yesterday, out of the blue, Senator Coonan introduced a Bill into the
22 Senate that would give the Australian Federal Police sweeping and
23 unchecked powers to block access to Internet material by decree, based
24 on what the police 'believe' the purpose or effect of the material is.
25
26 EFA is quite simply appalled by this Bill. It is an affront to the rule
27 of law and will likely be used as a tool of political censorship by the
28 police. Australia is not a police state and the police should not be
29 the judge, jury, and executioner of Internet content.
30
31 EFA has issued a media release about the Bill
32 (http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR070920.html), which we expect to gain
33 media attention in the coming days.
34
35 Parliament may not sit again before the Federal election is called.
36 This Bill is typical of the contempt with which the coalition treats the
37 Internet and the rights of all Australians to be free of ill-conceived
38 government censorship. Should the coalition be returned to power, this
39 Bill is likely to become law. Remember these issues on election day.
40
41 Last Tuesday brought news that a software vendor had sued the owner of
42 popular Australian discussion forum whirlpool.net.au for "injurious
43 falsehood". The software vendor, 2Clix Australia Pty Ltd, alleged that
44 the owner of whirlpool had maliciously published false statements about
45 2Clix's software, with the intent of damaging their business.
46
47 A number of EFA members contacted us to express their concern over the
48 lawsuit.
49
50 EFA made contact with Whirlpool and offered them whatever assistance we
51 could provide. EFA also issued a press release
52 (http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR070912.html) condemning the lawsuit,
53 which created a considerable amount of media attention. I was
54 interviewed by a number of journalists, including from Channel 7, who we
55 understand are preparing a feature article on the lawsuit.
56
57 EFA contacted a number of legal practitioners that we have existing
58 relationships with, with a view to finding pro-bono representation for
59 Whirlpool. We received an encouraging response, but thankfully this
60 proved to be unnecessary.
61
62 The overwhelming public backlash against 2Clix caused them to back-flip
63 and announce that they would abandon the lawsuit. EFA issued a press
64 release (http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR070919.html) welcoming this
65 news. Although the paperwork to end the legal action has not yet been
66 filed, 2Clix's solicitors have confirmed to Whirlpool that they are
67 instructed to discontinue the action. This is a true victory for people
68 power.
69
70 Whirlpool is not alone in this type of fight. EFA knows of at least
71 three other cases currently before the courts in which operators of
72 discussion forums have been sued (for defamation, leaking confidential
73 documents, and racial vilification) because of what third parties have
74 posted on their forums. These actions are an attack on free speech, and
75 on the infrastructure that permits members of the public to speak.
76
77 Adverse results in these cases threatens the provision of discussion
78 sites such as Whirlpool. Yet, the majority of these sites do not have
79 100,000 members to support them, or to make donations towards their
80 legal costs. EFA plays a vital role in assisting people in this
81 situation by attempting to find them pro-bono legal representation, and
82 providing other assistance.
83
84 We rely on your membership fees and donations to perform this vital
85 work.
86
87 In closing, I have established a personal blog at
88 http://defendingscoundrels.com/ - the topics that I blog about may be of
89 interest to many of you.
90
91 We're proud to keep fighting the good fight on your behalf, and we
92 appreciate your words of thanks.
93
94 Dale Clapperton
95 EFA Chairperson
96
97 ----- End forwarded message -----
98
99 --
100 Ivan Lazar Miljenovic
101 Ivan.Miljenovic@×××××.com

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