Internet uprising overturns Australian censorship law

The state of South Australia has a new election law that went into effect January 6, and its effect was shocking: anonymous political speech on the Internet was simply destroyed.

The law required anyone posting a political comment online during an election period to supply their real name and address or face a fine of up to AUS$1,250. The measure was grossly discriminatory—it applied only to bloggers and commenters, not to online "journals" (newspapers or magazine which are written by Real Journalists). Read the rest of this story.

Top stories: Jan 29 - 5, 2010

Opposable Thumbs 20 for 2010: Ars's most anticipated games of the year by Andrew Webster 2009 was a great year for gaming, with spectacular blockbusters like Assassin's Creed 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum and indie gems like Machinarium and Critter Crunch all competing for our precious gaming time. And this year looks to be even better. In fact, just narrowing down our list of most anticipated games to 20 was a task itself, and that doesn't even include some of the great games that have already been released. But after much deliberation, we've settled on 20 great looking games that we absolutely can't wait for. We apologize for any inconvenience this list may cause to your wallet. Read More

Law & Disorder Will your big-screen Super Bowl party violate copyright law? by Nate Anderson If you have a 55+ inch TV, some say you can get in trouble for hosting a home Super Bowl party. Ars investigates a modern myth—and finds the convoluted truth. Read More

Infinite Loop Tablet makers rethinking things in wake of iPad's $499 price by Jon Stokes Rumor has it that MSI, ASUS, and other companies that will put out competing tablets this year have been knocked back on their heels by the iPad's low launch price. The $499 model's apparently thin profit margin is also a massive change for Apple, so it's worth thinking about how and why the company did it. Read More

Law & Disorder Internet uprising overturns Australian censorship law by Nate Anderson Australia's national Internet filter still lives, but South Australia has pledged to repeal a tough law forcing all bloggers and online commenters to use real names and addresses when talking about politics in the run-up to an election. Score one for anonymous speech. Read More

Forward this message to a friend

More hot stories Three years later, Apple TV remains a hobby Mass Effect 2 text illegibility on SD TVs result of design decision Poll Technica: do you want Flash on the iPad? Video editing in Linux: a look at PiTiVi and Kdenlive Heavy Rain: why a great game may be destined to fail IE8, Chrome have most momentum in browser wars Hands-on: new single-window mode makes GIMP less gimpy MAG on the PS3 is flawed, imperfect... still a gem