ACTION ALERT: Help find banned Oz Content Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit The Human Rights Actions Network - Derechos Human Rights http://www.derechos.org/human-rights/actions/ ======================================================================== EFA ACTION ALERT PLEASE HELP LOCATE CONTENT SOON TO BE BANNED IN AUSTRALIA THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT IS RUSHING THROUGH ILL CONCEIVED LEGISLATION TO CENSOR INTERNET CONTENT IN AUSTRALIA PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS ALERT IN APPROPRIATE PLACES BUT NOT AFTER 11 MAY 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS Summary Background Classification Criteria What We Are Looking For What You Can Do About EFA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SUMMARY The Australian Government is in the process of introducing a draconian regieme to censor the Internet in Australia. The regieme will be based on the Australian film and video classification standards. We are seeking help in identifying material that will be banned by this scheme. We are doing this so that we can contact those who are hosting this potentially banned material to make them aware that legislation is about to be passed that will affect them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BACKGROUND The Australian Senate is currently considering a Bill proposed by the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts that will introduce draconian measures to block information on the Internet that is rated RC, X or R according to Australian film and video classification standards (see below). The Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) will administer this regime. The legislation, if enacted, will require that online service providers take responsibility to remove RC, X and R-rated material from the Internet once they have been notified of its existence by the ABA. The regime also provides for self-regulatory codes of practice for the online service provider industry, to be overseen by the ABA. These codes of practice must include a commitment by an online service provider to take all reasonable steps to block access to RC and X-rated content hosted overseas, once the service provider has been notified of the existence of the material by the ABA. Many millions of websites are likely to be blocked if the proposals are effectively implemented. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA The following is a summary of the three film based censorship categories that will be used to censor the Internet in Australia. RC rated content, to be completely censored from the Internet under this regime, includes, but is not limited to, the following types of content: Information that depicts, expresses or otherwise deals with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults, depicts it in a way that is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult. Or if the content promotes, incites or instructs in matters of crime or violence, the use of proscribed drugs, depictions of practices such as bestiality. Or if it appears to purposefully debase or abuse for the enjoyment of viewers, and which lack moral, artistic or other values, to the extent that they offend against generally accepted standards of morality, decency and propriety. And also includes gratuitous, exploitative or offensive depictions of violence with a very high degree of impact or which are excessively frequent, prolonged or detailed, cruelty or real violence which are very detailed or which have a high impact, sexual violence, sexual activity accompanied by fetishes or practices which are offensive or abhorrent, incest fantasies or other fantasies which are offensive or abhorrent. X-rated content, to be completely censored from the Internet under this regime, is material which contains real depictions of actual sexual intercourse and other sexual activity between consenting adults, including mild fetishes. R-rated content, to be subjected to a mandatory adult verification scheme, includes information about, or containing, drug use, nudity, sexual references, adult themes, horror themes, martial arts instruction, graphic images of injuries, medium or high level coarse language, sex education, health education and drug education. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR We are looking for content that is hosted by people who may not be aware that they will be efected by this legislation. We are looking for organisations that likely run their own web site, ie. the sites are not run by an ISP. Such organisations are likely to be in one of the following categories: Government (particularly State and Local) Associations Businesses Media Education Libraries As well as using search engines, you may also want to try the search engines on the major Australian media sites for locating potentially banned material on their sites. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WHAT YOU CAN DO Most useful would be to do this today (Monday 26 April), or tomorrow. However, any time before Tuesday 11 May will be useful, but the sooner the better. You don't have to be Australian, or live in Australia to help with this. To assist this campaign follow these simple steps: 1. Use search engines, or other means, to locate material hosted in Australia that may be banned. Look for web sites in the .au top level domain. You are most likely to find material that would be rated R (see above). The following search engines are Australia specific, but use any search engine you are comfortable with. http://au.excite.com/ http://www.terrigal.net.au/~floyd/OzSearch.htm http://www.altavista.yellowpages.com.au/cgi-bin/query?kl=en&text=on Commonwealth Government Search Engine http://search.fed.gov.au/cgi-bin/showsearch.pl Australian Cultural Network http://www.acn.net.au/websites/ 2. Send a brief email about any material you have identified giving the URL, a brief explanation as to why you think it would be banned and what rating you think it would be given (RC, X or R) to: The feedback you provide will help EFA to mobilise content hosts against this ill conceived legislation. 3. Sit back and relax. You have just taken a step towards overcoming Internet censorship. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ABOUT EFA Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. is an association of individuals and organisations concerned with online civil liberties. Further details about EFA and a membership form are available by sending email to , or visit the EFA web site at: http://www.efa.org.au For further details on the EFA Campaign against 1999 Internet Censorship Legislation visit: http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/stop.html ======================================================================== ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytpac-04.26.99-13:45:19-8956