[OT] Australian internet blackout

[François Chaplais]

There have been some attempts at that in France. Until now, they have been thwarted by the Constitutional Council who has asserted that the right to access the internet is part of the fundamental right to access information and (implicitly) is guaranteed by the constitution. Of course the government have laid another law on the subject; I do not know what is going to happen.

In french:

Dans leur décision, les sages du Palais Royal estiment que la liberté de communication et d'expression énoncée dans la déclaration des droits de l'homme implique, "eu égard au développement généralisé d'internet", la "liberté d'accéder au services de communication au public en ligne". Ils en tirent la conclusion que la coupure de l'abonnement ne pouvait en conséquence incomber qu'au juge.

in english
In their decision, the wise men at the Palais Royal have considered that the freedom of communication and of expression as stated in the declaration of human rights implies, "considering the general growth of internet", the "freedom to access online communication". As a consequence, the termination of a(n internet) subscription could only be decided by a judge.

(in this law, the internet subscription could  be terminated by a simple administrative decision, without any debate).

May this help.
François 

Le 28 janv. 2010 à 07:15, Sarah Reichelt a écrit :

> Hi All,
> 
> I would like to apologise for any inconvenience, but anyone visiting
> my web site over the next week will see a blackout message in protest
> against the Australian government's planned compulsory internet
> filtering. This is a badly considered policy that will not achieve
> it's intended goal, but will block legitimate sites without recourse.
> Any Australian's who wish to register their protest can sign the
> petition at <http://www.efa.org.au/petition/>.
> 
> Thank you for your attention. Normal programming will now be resumed :-)
> 
> Regards,
> Sarah