Mr Michael Atkinson, the South Australian attorney general, still misunderstands a key issue affecting Australians and it's an issue that those he represents are demanding that he consider.

Australian gaming website Kotaku has published a response to a letter that a member wrote to Mr Atkinson; unfortunately for law-abiding, adult Australian gamers the news is all bad. Not only is Mr Atkinson unrelenting in his position to cement Australia's status as the only developed nation not to have an adult categorisation for computer games, he is still displaying woeful deliberate ignorance of the key issues involved.

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Before the Government's mandatory filter is even in place, the potential chilling effect of even the current net censorship regime was felt today when Whirlpool's hosting provider received a take-down notice from ACMA because of a page that links to a another site on the current ACMA blacklist. Given the steep penalties, up to $11,000 per day, it's hard to fault the host and Whirlpool for taking this seriously and complying. (more...)

Michael Geist is reporting that ”[t]he European Parliament has voted for a proposal to bring more transparency and public access to documents. The resolution includes specific language about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.”

Acting in accordance with Article 255(1) of the EC Treaty, the European Commission should immediately make all documents related to the ongoing international negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) publicly available.

The justification for the language is:

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will contain a new international benchmark for legal frameworks on what is termed intellectual property right enforcement. The content as known to the public is clearly legislative in character. Further, the Council confirms that ACTA includes civil enforcement and criminal law measures. Since there can not be secret objectives regarding legislation in a democracy, the principles established in the ECJ Turco case must be upheld.

Geist notes that ”[t]he vote sends a strong signal on the need to open the ACTA process and heightens the pressure on the negotiating countries to remove the veil of secrecy.”

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Despite detailed and concerted lobbying and campaigning to attempt to secure logical and cohesive answers to our questions about what an Australian censorship regime might look like, we are still no closer than we were in November 2008 to knowing what might happen if you click something that the Australian Communications and Media Authority deem you should not.  EFA has taken the initiative to explore the issue itself, in a light hearted fashion, and developed at the same time a way you can let your friends know what may be in store for all Australians.

Have a look at http://nanourl.net/f5b21 to see what EFA's website may look like at the completion of "successful" trials, you can show anything you like to your friends.