Comments on: Why your lack of morals might be forcing us into a nanny state!

By: EarleyDaysYet

EarleyDaysYet — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:24:52 +0000

This is something I have also struggled with – trying to explain to people exactly why I am uncomfortable about BitTorrent et al – really, I’d love to watch the whole series of True Blood for free, & if my friend had the box set I’d happily borrow it. But … downloading it in a sneaky roundabout way? It makes me feel gritty. I’d rather pay per episode for it on iTunes than wait for it to hit TV in Australia, so I do that. P2P networking like that is openly marketed, easily blocked.

But is the Australian government’s filter – which is more akin to the Great Firewall of China than I’m entirely comfortable with – technologically adept enough to filter the Deep Web? The completely private, unadvertised, anonymous parts of the Web that villains use to nefarious purpose – are those detected, blocked, shut down? Everything I’ve read says not, which to me suggests that perhaps we’re performing sleight of hand on ourselves.

I don’t think the government has any way to expose the man behind the curtain, so the rest of us will have to suffer the inconvenience & frustration of an inadequate & badly designed system. Sort of like teaching dictation software not to type “work” when you say “walk”.

By: darryl

darryl — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:51:21 +0000

Josh yes as I admitted it is very tenuous, the linkage is made only by me, not that it should necessarily be linked in normally. There is the thought though that our imperial leaders feel this way and believe because of all these things we do we cannot be trusted to behave for our self. I do feel there is a degree of moral high ground people are on in the feed debate, and there is a need to say, “can we be selective about our morals”? Does this matter more or less or the same. Ireckon that is the intention of the idea of some loose linkage. That we do bring some review of our moral high grounds in such passionated debates.

I appreciate your comments. I was pretty animated last night

By: joshnunn

joshnunn — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:41:46 +0000

I think the link you’ve drawn between illegal activities and the “clean feed” is very tenuous. They are unrelated and the “clean feed” will not do anything to address the illegal activities you’ve mentioned in your article. And neither should it. As you hint, it’s really up to us to police ourselves. The ethics involved are straight forward, and I don’t disagree with you on that (although I desperately want you to be wrong!). But to frame this as something we should be discussing at the same time as the clean feed is nonsense.

Should we also bring up the last time we jaywalked, or crept over the speed limit or parked in a no standing zone? Didn’t pay a library fine? It’s all very well and good to lead honest lives free of all illegal activities, but how it has ANY bearing on the clean feed debate I just cannot see! The clean feed is ostensibly to “protect’ us from kiddy porn and other unmentionables, the argument is that the scheme is rife with technical problems that have not been properly addressed, and the system is ripe for exploitation. Whether we as individuals are individually morally upright is a red herring. It’s like arguing that it’s fine to have government cameras watching us in our houses because some people shoplift. By framing the debate like this, you are arguing the Government is right to continue until we all get our act together, which since the human race first walked on land we have shown is just not going to happen.

This would be a fine piece on its own, without any talk of the clean feed debate. I fear by putting the two arguments together you are diminishing the issues at stake.

By: Sari

Sari — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:13:55 +0000

This is a great post! I love that you’ve shifted the boundaries of this debate.

By: I_Enigma

I_Enigma — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:07:46 +0000

Very well said – I agree completely. People seem to think it’s okay to take from others as long as no-one takes from them.

It’s not just about the ‘stealing’ (downloading etc) it’s also about morals, child pornography etc – which you touched on in the 2nd paragraph.

I’ve touched on this myself with kids and the internet and programs that can be used to stop access to ‘areas’ we don;t want our children having access to.

You’ve written this well – unfortunately – I think the horse has already bolted – although there is hope in the Senate – we can only hope.

Thank-you for a very interesting article