Relax: Conroy's filter can be safely ignored

Years ago, I was with a group of journalists discussing region-coded DVDs with the head of a large electronics manufacturer. We asked how vendors got away with stripping the region-coding feature from the DVD players they sell, which technically seemed to be an illegal violation of DVD licensing and copyright laws. "It's funny," he replied. "It just seems to happen whenever the shipping containers pass under the gantries on the highway from the port. We can't do anything about it."

I suspect similar conversations will be common in a few years, after Senator Stephen Conroy's misguided (he prefers the word "modest") internet filter has been implemented and vendors are selling computers that are pre-configured to bypass it completely or small downloadable filter-circumvention apps undo years of debate and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars with a single click.

And then...

Now, call me old-fashioned, but if you're going to pass a law, tradition says that you also set down penalties for breaking that law — you know, so people don't break it. For example, Australia's content censorship legislation (PDF) — which Conroy keeps referencing, saying the filter is just an extension of it — lays down fines and potential jail time for infringements. If you possess, circulate, or even facilitate the acquisition of copies of "Stuntgirl" or any of the hundreds of other RC movies, publications and games that are banned in Australia, you're going to be in trouble. But if you help your best mate download a copy online by circumventing the filter, well, that seems to be OK.

ZDNet Article

As if they are just gonna let the laws be ignored. Could you imagine that they would say: 'We are going to reduce the speed limit at schools to 30km/h, but we wont enforce it, honest. We are doing this to protect children but we wont enforce it, honest.'

Come on Conroy. This is bullshit.