They also attempted to take a page down from Whirlpool. Read the story here
Quote:UPDATE 5.18pm: A SHOCKING list of "banned websites" did not come from the communications watchdog, says Minister Stephen Conroy.
The list, purported to be from the Australian Media and Communications Authority (ACMA), was "leaked" to an international website and included an Australian dentist's page, poker websites, and a pornography site ranked in Alexa's Top 50 most popular websites in Australia.
"I am aware of reports that a list of URLs has been placed on a website. This is not the ACMA blacklist," Senator Conroy said in a statement.
The website which published the list currently appears to be offline.
"The published list purports to be current at 6 August 2008 and apparently contains approximately 2400 URLs, whereas the ACMA blacklist for the same date contained 1061 URLs."
Last November, ACMA said its blacklist contained 1370 sites.
"ACMA is investigating this matter and is considering a range of possible actions it may take, including referral to the Australian Federal Police," Senator Conroy said.
The watchdog has warned that anyone who republishes the list or attempts to access child pornography sites on it could face up to 10 years in prison.
It has also warned that linking to sites on the list could incur fines of up to $11,000 a day.
"The ACMA blacklist of prohibited URLs has been in place since 2000," Senator Conroy said.
"URLs placed on the list have been deemed to contain prohibited content as determined by the Broadcasting Services Act 1992."
"The ACMA blacklist is currently provided to vendors of filtering software."
"Under current law, ACMA has the power to issue take-down notices for prohibited URLs hosted in Australia.
"However, it has no power to do the same for content hosted overseas."
The Minister's office has been contacted for comment.
The published online today was thought to be the basis of the Federal Government's web filtering plan.
"Many of the sites clearly contain only run-of-the-mill adult material, poker tips, or nothing controversial at all", said Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) Vice-Chair Colin Jacobs.
"Even if some of these sites may have been defaced at the time they were added to the list, how would the operators get their sites removed if the list is secret and no appeal is possible?"
Under the filter plan, all internet service providers will be forced to block access to certain sites.
The list was published on a public website without any age verification or warnings.
It contains 2395 sites, about 1000 more than was thought.
?The leaking of the list has confirmed some of our worst fears,? said Mr Jacobs.
?This was bound to happen, especially as mandatory filtering would require the list to be distributed to ISPs all around the country."
"The Government is now in the unenviable business of compiling and distributing a list which includes salacious and illegal material and publicising those very sites to the world.?
As well as sites suspected of publishing child pornography, the list included pages on Wikipedia, YouTube and Wikileaks as well as online gambling sites.
The site that published the banned list says Australia is behaving like a "democratic backwater".
"In January 2009, the Thai system was used to censor Australian reportage about the imprisonment of Harry Nicolaides," a statement from the site read, referring to the Melburnian writer who was imprisoned after publishing a novel deemed critical of the Thai monarchy.
"Australian democracy must not be permitted to sleep with this loaded gun," the statement said.
There's far too much posted here to quote and highlight, but my thanks and cheers go to you AuWolf, for posting this sickening series of events that are bringing shame upon us the Australian public.
It becomes all too apparent when a certain perverted (in my view) photographer, can walk into a school yard and solicit candidates, for his "art". These pictures..these images of nude pre-teen boys and girls were referred to by the Prime minister as "disgusting" amongst other words. Yet no charges were laid......it all went by the wayside and was sanctioned as art. More shame piled on us as Australians.
As fast as we shut down one kiddie porn site, another appears, but this is what vigilance is all about. We don't need to have the government to tell us what to see and what is to be censored, we have the very rights to tell them what is and what isn't acceptable.
Senator Conroy in my opinion is a belligerent bureaucrat and needs to be stripped of office, and be replaced with a free thinking individual. How dare the government thrust censorship down our throats without even the slightest of consultation of the mandate.
Dear reader, you can see it, you can feel it and you can even smell and taste it! This "lucky country" of ours is being held to ransom and degraded.
Just a last point I'd like to make is this...Don't you just love the words "leaked documents"? This conjures all sorts of images to the mind but two stand out more than the others I believe. The said documents were "leaked" before hand..so all is fine there..at least they were going to be announced anyway, but the second fact is hideous. The so called "leaked documents" that you and I were never meant to see or hear about that have a direct impact upon our very lives. Hidden agendas are stripping us slowly but so very surely of our basic human rights.
