Australian Website Bans ... Australians 247
Nazlfrag writes "Earlier this month the blog and discussion forum ZGeek was sued for $42 million AUD over a user's comment. The plaintiffs are aspiring movie producers who claim to have lost a movie deal due to a 9/11 conspiracy discussion thread. Even though the initial lawsuit has been thrown out, and the company complied with lawyers' demands by taking down the offending posts, it is believed the plaintiffs will file suit again. In addition to suing the forum, in an Australian first they have been granted an injunction to force the ISPs to disclose the IP addresses of the two posters involved. Due to the risk of incurring even greater legal costs the company is closing its doors in Australia, and will ban their fellow countrymen from posting there again."
Re:Poor Aussies (Score:5, Informative)
Consider this: The Ten Commandments contain 297 words, the Bill of Rights 463 words, and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 266 words. A recent federal directive regulating the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words.
I'm shocked nobody has called bullshit on this one yet. Damn, dude. Check snopes.
http://www.snopes.com/language/document/cabbage.asp [snopes.com]
Unless of course you also read this on snopes and decided it was a good time to perpetrate an urban legend. *shrugs*
Re:Poor Aussies (Score:5, Informative)
Why are we regulating cabbage? Are they requiring the price to be low to combat anti-competition tactics in cabbage syndicates?
The government has regulated the cost of food for a long time for many reasons...
1. The free market cannot be trusted to maintain price stability. If there was a sudden drop or rise in the price of food, then people might not be able to afford it, or in the reverse, that farmers would go bankrupt and supply would diminish. When it comes to basic needs things like food, electricity, water, stability often sought after.
2. There is no cabbage cabal, only Zuul.
3. Incorporating a price floor prevents large corporations from winning based on economy of scale -- they cannot undersell smaller operations, thus existing infrastructure (land, mainly) will never be repurposed at a lower cost. But it "protects rural america" doing this.
Re:Poor Aussies (Score:2, Informative)
First, Not. A. Dude.
From the American Heritage Dictionary
3 Slang.
2. dudes Persons of either sex.
Banned? Not so much. (Score:5, Informative)
Wait what?
As a longtime user (~10 years) of Zgeek, and an Aussie, I'm pretty sure we haven't been banned. It's just that the site, which is hosted in the US already is going to legally set up shop outside of Australia to avoid these kinds of legal hassles.
For the record, the whole lawsuit thing is a joke, and everyone's aware that it's doomed to failure. The problem is that since Zgeek is essentially run by one guy in his spare time, he doesn't have the resources to fight it effectively, so it's better to run away rather than set yourself up for future problems.
For the record, the site really isn't too much more than a place were people post random news, and a forum which is dominated by in-fighting, trolling, and a bizarre 'shit-in-his-shoes' meme (it was started after Google started rating us highly as place to get life advice). And yes, it's as much fun as it sounds.
Re:Sad to see you go. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Poor Aussies (Score:4, Informative)
The government has regulated the cost of food for a long time for many reasons...
Hey dude, as someone else has pointed out in this thread, your tale of cabbage regulation is an urban myth [snopes.com]
Do you have anything to back up anything you're saying - or are you just trolling?
Some snippets of the thread from caches. (Score:5, Informative)
Page 1 [74.125.47.132].
Page 2 (John posts as "Doghead" on this page) [74.6.239.67].
Page 4 [74.6.239.67].
Greg Smith's threat/post [74.125.47.132].
Mirror - Page 1 [dyndns.org]
Mirror - Page 2 [dyndns.org]
Mirror - Page 4 [dyndns.org]
Mirror - Greg's Threat [dyndns.org]
If there are any other pages I missed that got picked up in the cache, post them here.
Re:Australia is a little jumpy right now (Score:1, Informative)
You forgot one of the most famous Australians ever: basement dad
Re:So much for the First Amendment. (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry, amendment to what? We don't have that fancy-schmansy Bill of Rights you yanks have, we go back to the Magna Carta, mate.
Oh, wait...
Re:Rabbit-Proof Firewall (Score:1, Informative)
I don't know why people on this site keep perpetrating the myth that Australian internet is censored. The blacklist that the government releases is used by a software internet filter that is provided for parents to try and prevent children from accessing porn. How would I know, I'm an Australian and I can tell you that from this end of the internet you can still access those sites on the acma blacklist (though i'm not willing to try the more questionable sites on that list, after all even sexualised cartoon images of underage women is illegal in Australia).
Re:Poor Aussies (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Poor Aussies (Score:3, Informative)
But the fact is, as the GP pointed out, you don't have to be male to be called "dude". It was obvious that he wasn't calling girlintraining a city slicker or a fancy dresser. From the context it was obvious the meaning was "fellow". Kennedy would say "My fellow Americans", Obama would more likely use the more contemporary "Dudes". Kennedy wasn't just referring to men whan he spole to his "fellow Americans".
Re:Poor Aussies (Score:4, Informative)
Your scenerio would need infinite arable land.
Price fall for a variety of reasons. Farms aree NOT a corrective measure the way youi think of them. You can't stop and start a farm business, yit needs constent work. When you happen to ahve a poor yield, you need to work it so it's ready for the next year. If we let just the amrket drive it, we wil have a low yield years, farmers will go out of business, and then the next year we wont have enough.
A bad year, or decade even, can be caused by forces other then market forces. too little water, too much water,a freeze, insects, and disease can kill a yield even when demand is high.
You do realize we are talking about food here, right? People die without it?
maybe you should take a look of what farming and food markets are actually like before yapping off?