Link: http://delimiter.com.au/2012/02/28/conroy-misleads-public-on-internet-filter/" target="_blank

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy today appeared to consciously tell a factual inaccuracy with respect to the current implementation status of Labor’s controversial Internet filtering project, stating that Telstra and Optus had implemented the mandatory filtering system, when they have only implemented a drastically reduced voluntary version.

A new book, by an author with experience cross-cultures in the West and the East, argues that a global struggle for control of the internet is under way. At stake are no less than civil liberties, privacy and even the character of democracy in the 21st century, author Rebecca MacKinnon says.

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Mark Summerfield, a patent attorney, analyses the current UK alleged piracy/copyright extradition case with major international ramifications. As well, there's links to the NYT coverage of proposed new US laws which are even more draconian, and to an SMH story of the real-life experience of an Australian extradited and jailed in the US for a similar 'offence'.

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Photographers are some of those people most affected day-to-day by terrorism law restrictions. Here's a short film from the UK – 'Stand Your Ground' – which explores what happens when six photographers take to the streets of the City of London. Photographers in Australia face similar problems in going about their work and hobbies: try taking a photo in your city and see what happens.

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It's easy to defend free speech when you support a speaker's views. It's harder when you oppose them. Now, after the ruling in the Bolt case, free speech champions – even those who dislike and disagree with Andrew Bolt – should be speaking out, wrote CLA's CEO Bill Rowlings in the online journal, The Punch.

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The Attorney-General's criticism of WikiLeaks is classical double standards: apparently, it was OK for the government of the day to leak against whistleblower Andrew Wilkie, but anyone leaking against the then-or-now Australian Government commits a heinous crime. When governments hide behind purposeless secrecy, leaking is about the only way ordinary people get to exercise their right to know.

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