Torsten - Blackout Corroboree!

[Rabelais]

I hope this thread will be successful in convincing Torsten to blackout The Corroboree during The Great Australian Internet Blackout from Jan 25th to Jan 29th. This is being used to bring attention to the issue of the impending mandatory internet censorship system being implemented by the government. The blackout is being organised by Electronic Frontiers Australia and will hopefully include many high traffic sites hosted within Australia.

http://www.internetblackout.com.au/websites/

Here is how it will work:

We’ve created a very easy way to participate in the Great Australian Internet Blackout. Ahead of blackout week, please put the following HTML snippet just above the closing </body> tag on your website’s front page:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.internetblackout.com.au/ib/blackout.js"></script>

After you add this snippet, a description of the Great Australian Internet Blackout demonstration will appear above a “blacked out” (significantly darkened) version of your page. Your visitor need only close the blackout box to use your website as usual — and they will only see this message once!

Well, as you see, people will still be able to visit the site, so it should not cause too much disruption, just hopefully inform people about the issue.

What say you Torsten? I think the rest of us who oppose this should also put the hard word on him.

[reptyle]

What if its a gateway drug?

[Yeti101]

I'm not totally adverse to this, but there are a few points worth considering.

Will this actually change anything? It's kind of preaching to the converted here I think.

Will this draw unwanted attention? Maybe, maybe not. I'd prefer us to keep a low profile.

My main beef is that these sort of actions achieve little other fooling than those inhabiting the blogsphere that they are doing something politically significant, when really no one in the federal government gives a flying fuck that you blacked out some website.

I'm all for fighting the filter, but this isn't my preferred option.

[Quill]

Yeti said it best

[Torsten]

I think the biggest problem with the filter is that most people think it doesn't affect them - much. The black out is a great way to let people know just how many of the sites they visit are likely to be affected in some way.

My main concerns are whether this poses a security risk as I am allowing a script to run, and whether I'll get the time at the right time to actually do it.

[Rabelais]

Yeti101

Will this actually change anything? It's kind of preaching to the converted here I think.

I certainly understand where you are coming from, but surely there would be 'regular' folk who get diverted here also. People doing Google searches for Australian natives, bush food, gardening tips, cactus cultivation etc...must be heaps of people who stumble in here.

Anyway, yay or nay, it will be interesting to see how many sites will actually implement it. I'd love to see Google.au do it...though unlikely I guess.

[Chiral]

During the blackout y'all can go to www.candlelight.com till it comes back on.

internet blackouts...we are indeed living in some strange times.

[stiched up]

"My main beef is that these sort of actions achieve little other fooling than those inhabiting the blogsphere that they are doing something politically significant, when really no one in the federal government gives a flying fuck that you blacked out some website.

I'm all for fighting the filter, but this isn't my preferred option. "

please enlighten me of your prefered options?? if possible to do so online?

i dont think this is to deter the gov more to create exposure to the popul-us which hopefully will make a diff come voting time

thanks for the post dale even if its not a prefered method by some im sure theres room for creativity here so if anyone has any other ideas we could always launch multiple attacks

im sure facebook could get some good exposure just how to go about it??

Edited January 14, 2010 by stiched up

[Alchemica]

im sure facebook could get some good exposure just how to go about it??

 

http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=213225102082

Black out your online profile picture » Change your profile picture now to spread the word and encourage your friends to join the blackout. Over 1500 Twitter users are participating already!

http://www.internetblackout.com.au/profiles/

Not sure how useful it will be, but better than nothing I guess.

[reptyle]

imagine if electrons did this kinda shit...fuck you all of you for thinking about it! i just spent 5 minutes trying to figure out if i was bigger than you, but it turns out that positrons and electrons have the same mass...fuck!

[Yeti101]

I think the biggest problem with the filter is that most people think it doesn't affect them - much. The black out is a great way to let people know just how many of the sites they visit are likely to be affected in some way.

My main concerns are whether this poses a security risk as I am allowing a script to run, and whether I'll get the time at the right time to actually do it.

 

I think you might be right in terms of awareness, but I thought that most internet literate Australians were aware of this.

I hadn't thought of the security concern with the script and I don't know enough to say either way - someone around here will have some idea though. My worry was more that this might be the equivalent of us hanging a massive neon 'kick me' sign on the site. I would think twice about putting the site on the list of supporters, that's for sure. In much the same way that people marching in protests against the Vietnam war had the photos taken by spooks, I worry (paranoid, I know ) that this might be the electronic equivalent. Having said that if we want to stand up for what we believe in then that's a risk we have to take. It's T's call and I'll respect that either way.

please enlighten me of your prefered options?? if possible to do so online?

i dont think this is to deter the gov more to create exposure to the popul-us which hopefully will make a diff come voting time

 

I'm led to believe that snail mail is vastly more effective in terms of lobbying the government than anything on the internet. My worry is that people will think that as long as they do something like this, that they have done enough - like all the people who blacked out their profiles on twitter but can't be bothered to write a two sentence letter to their MP.

But in terms of pure exposure, it could be effective.

imagine if electrons did this kinda shit...fuck you all of you for thinking about it! i just spent 5 minutes trying to figure out if i was bigger than you, but it turns out that positrons and electrons have the same mass...fuck!

 

You rule Reptyle!

[rahli]

Internet filter 'poses threat to freedom'

Hundreds of Australian websites will fade to black this week in protest against the Federal Government's proposed internet filter, which some claim will put Australia on a par with countries like China and Iran.

The Federal Government wants to pass laws to force internet service providers to block banned material hosted on overseas servers. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says he intends to introduce the legislation in the first half of 2010.

But organisers of the Great Australian Internet Blackout protest say the mandatory internet filter will not protect children from harmful content on the internet and will waste taxpayers' money.

Spokesman Jeff Waugh says the filter could put Australia in company with China.

"Filtering is a serious problem and it poses quite a threat to freedom for countries like China," he said.

"But it is quite scary [that Australia] would be joining countries like China and Iran that would be filtering the net."

The Greens say their website will fade to black today as part of the nationwide protest.

Upon visiting the site, a box containing information about the internet blackout appears and the background is dimmed, but the site returns to normal after just one mouse click.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says he believes more than 500 websites will take part.

"That's basically all the device is - the blackout isn't designed to take the website offline or to make it completely illegible," he said.

"But any time you visit that website that black screen is going to come up first and remind you what's going on.

"We'll support any community initiative that raises awareness about the issue and helps educate people about what's actually proposed."

He said he would not have been able to persuade his colleagues take The Greens fully offline.

"I think the Communications Minister would probably be quite chuffed if we took The Greens website offline for a week or a day," he said.

"It's not going to change the world... it's not a massive act of civil disobedience or anything, it's just a quirky little device."

Link

Australian Greens

Edited January 26, 2010 by rahli

[Torsten]

I couldn't do it. I wanted to put it on the forum page, but I can't find where to put it.