Banned hyperlinks could cost you $11,000 a day - Technology - smh.com.au

Craziness in Australia: "Banned hyperlinks could cost you $11,000 a day"

Here's the deal. The Aussie government has banned several websites. One example is an anti-abortion site.

Another example is Wikileaks, which was just added for publishing a list of the websites banned by Denmark - because the first rule of censorship is the same as the first rule of fight club. You're not allowed to talk about it!

They say they will fine anyone who hyperlinks to those banned pages.

In Denmark this has worked out the same way censorship always works out. It starts out by saying "we have to ban kiddie porn." Fair enough. Who is going to come to the defense of kiddie porn? But the problem is this: as soon as a populace admits that its government has a right to censor its speech, a precedent is set, and that right switches from one which is inherent to one which the government may or may not let you keep. Once the government is given that power, they, not you, can decide what you should see. The censorship then expands to anyone who opposes the government's position on censorship. Then it expands to include anyone who opposes the government's position on anything.

"Man learns nothing from history except that he learns nothing from history."

Opponents said the government's "spin is starting to wear thin" and it could no longer be denied that the blacklist targets a huge range of material that is perfectly legal and even non-controversial. Reporters Without Borders has now placed Australia on its "watch list" of countries imposing anti-democratic restrictions that could open the way for abuses of power and control of information. Australia joins such fine companions as Yemen, Eritrea, and Zimbabwe in that esteemed fellowship. Just the kind of guys you want to hang out with.