Hand over illegal porn at the border, please

a

"If something is perfectly legal in your own country, would you even think to ask when travelling to another?"

Yes, Definitely.

Though the Australian government are wrong and crazy it's the traveller's responsibility to find out the laws and customs of the country they are visiting before they do.

The Internet? We've heard of it.

Is there even any point to these kind of checks? What's to stop a visitor hopping on the net one way or another and simply downloading their material?

One country that makes me laugh

In order to go over and do my job (evaluate a company we are in process of acquiring to determine suitability to remain on our payroll), I have to:

Show a chest xray,

Provide an aids test

Provide business ratification (no problem with that)

Provide proof of education and certifications to perform the tasks I am going for

Provide CV, statement from my boss and CEO of the company on why I need to do the task myself

Provide funds in excess of AU$3000 - for a three day trip

Provide an invitation from the company being visited

... and it gets sillier and sillier

So I phone the embassy and ask why so many restrictions. "You must show that your travel is to the benefit of our society and that you won't be costing any Australian a job". Ah. So, if I don't go and we shut down the site as "unknown cost drain", this will be a preference? I think we have our solution.

Bottom line is they think they're more at danger than the Americans, who are far more reasonable I might add given that I am of middle eastern decent!

The fine is to stop...

> Penalties for evading the law are steep: a fine of up to A$11,000 for making a false or misleading statement to a customs officer

Presumably the fine for making misleading statements is to stop jokers who declare a stash of material and then proceed to hand over a copy of Brendan O'Connor's stock publicity photo?

Yes

"If something is perfectly legal in your own country, would you even think to ask when travelling to another?"

Being Dutch...

just whip it out

slap it on the table and get the customs team to handle the rest

No reason to concern yourself, ma'm

* assuming best flying doctors accent *

We're licensed smut inspectors. You ain't got nuttin we ain't seen before.

Stop it

Or you'll go blind !!!

If something is perfectly legal in your own country,

would you even think to ask when travelling to another?

Yes, if going to Pakistan or Japan or another totally different culture. I'd have a quick scan for the likes of Norway (pretty close to home- in fact they invaded my home a few hundred years ago- and the guys who come over here seem pretty sound)

However, going to a country with a similarly relaxed attitude to swearing, partial nudity and the same love of (a piss weak imitation of) beer, I'd probably have considered myself pretty much safe. Or at least in a fairly legally- defensible position.

WTF

"material depicting bestiality"

I would have thought there might be plenty of home-grown given the prevalence of lonely sheep farmers.

It's OK if you're a US citizan

"...the request by US authorities that travellers own up ... planning to come to the US to overthrow the government..."

That's perfectly OK if you're a US citizen - otherwise anyone supporting the Tea Party would never be able to take a foreign vacation.

Have they not heard of encryption?

Once again, this sounds like politicians desperately trying to pretend that encryption doesn't exist, or is trivially breakable or something. This bunch of fools seem no smarter than our home-grown morons; surely someone could quietly take them by the hand, explain how systems like Truecrypt nested encryption works and why it completely foils their laws, and just leave them somewhere to have a nice private nervous breakdown before they get along with repealing all the previous nonsense laws.

Hmm..

You can't come in if you're breaking laws?

Heck, we used the country for *law-breakers* not that long ago. How times change! ;-)

/Flame war to follow, no doubt.

C'mon: we won the Ashes; it's our turn to do some gloating :-))

Of course, it's all b*llocks

I'd always have said "nope, no porn here", even if I was carrying 1TB of San Fernando's finest. You just don't need the hassle of saying "yes" to that question, even if you have nothing dodgy, do you? But then I'd also have taken the precaution of TrueCrypting it, so the chance of getting a fine for a false declaration would be practically nil.

Waste of time asking those questions anyway, like you say. Yes, I'm a terrorist with AIDS planning to overthrow the government. What? Why can't I come in...?

Oh for the love of...

If you're kiddie fiddler or like a bit of farmyard action, you generally tend to know you've crossed that line and booked your ticket to Satan's holiday resort, you're hardly likely to read a form at the border of Oz...

"Are you are kiddie fiddler and do you have any with you? (Tick box)"

"Duh, yeah I fancy paying a huge fine, getting time in an Oz prison and 'cut-up' down the shower block! You know what I'll tick that box!"

Fuck me how stupid do these officials think some people are?

Your papers are in order?

erm...

"In the meantime, cynics are suggesting that the question is about as helpful as the request by US authorities that travellers own up to whether they are a member of a terrorist organisation - or are planning to come to the US to overthrow the government."

EXCEPT that if the Customs tuckfard is suspicious of you, or is having a bad day, or is just one of the 80% fat angry bastards we seem to use as Customs officials (the other 10% being butch stone-faced women), they can demand to see everything on your phone / laptop / usb drives. Expect to be late for your meeting, or have your digital stuff confiscated, then sent to you 2 weeks later, ruined with erased drives.

I've had the whole third degree because I was 'suspicious' because my passport had got wet (Chicago rainstorm).

You have been warned. Better yet, don't come here or do business with Australia. Go somewhere nicer, like China or Saudi Arabia.

This country is stupid

This one's just to complement all our other stupid laws that no sane person could reason with. Now we have the whole set!

Don't try to come to any form of reason for just about any of our laws here you'll end up very depressed and disillusioned. Additionally, the arrogance and contempt for the public that our politicians have here is staggering.

The public and I.T. industry have very publicly voiced serious discontent with the firewall proposal and the whole net nanny issue no end. Still, the government continues to push this crap uphill, touting it as a "great moral issue". I call foul. Since when do politicians have morals? They are not put in power to act on their feelings - they are meant to be there to enact the consensus will of the people. In a true democracy anyhow - just goes to show that's NOT the system we have.

At least I can smile that the lawmakers / politicians & bureaucrats are just showing off how they really have NFI about "the internet".

I would assume the vast majority of deemed illegal porn out and about is obtainable via the 'net. So why would a kiddie porn peddler have reason to import this crap through Australian Customs physically - are the powers that be really that dense? I think it's obvious that if a foreigner or returning national really wanted access to said materiel after entering the country *and they know it's illegal material here* - the easiest solution would be to put the content on a server, encrypted or not, coming through customs, then access the material once again.

Hell - they could probably be accessing it soon as they are through customs @ the airport over a wifi/mobile link if they wanted it that bad.

But I forgot that our soon to be implemented mandatory filter is going to "protect us all" from all the nasty RC materiel on the big bad internet ... all under the guise of the cheapest trick in the book "think of the children" - but that's not the only thing they aim to censor.. they won't even publish the black list. We will undoubtly have sites silently blocked for political views/free speech - it's the enevitable result of a power crazy government.

I'm betting we'll only get absolute minimal effect in fighting these crimes (at great expense to me and other taxpayers).

I would even go as far to apologise in advance to all the innocent (majority of travellers) who will be feeling frustration and embarrassment via having their private lives so openly violated by my country.

OZ is becoming quite the joke. P.S. Sorry for the above book - had to get it out of my system after reading this.

Idiocy

Its like the question on the US visa form, something like "Are you, or have you ever been part of, or associated with, a terrorist organization?"

I mean, you would have to be really dumb to check that box. It would just get you a free flight to gitmo to be held indefinitely without trial.

If you tick the box about porn you can at best be expected to be delayed in your travels, possibly have your laptop taken for investigation for several days/weeks, possibly returned completely trashed, and at worst either denied entry or paying a visit to the local cop shop for interrogation and possibly (if really nasty stuff) a stay as a guest of her majesty in prison.

So, just don't tick the bloody box. Who will ever know?

"Sir, can you show us your porn?"

"I don't have any porn on my computer"

"Sir, obstructing a customs officer in his duty is a booting* office, now show me the porn"

"But, i really don't have any"

"Sir, you are a human male, aged between 1 and dead and carrying a laptop, we know you have porn"

"Ok, you got me, its in C:\porn"

"Thank you sir, we would never have thought of looking th..... Oh my f**king god. Two people having sex missionary! Get out of our country you pervert!!!"

* - simpsons reference for those who wondered.

Australian immigration worse than the US Homeland mob

The Australian welcoming committee are ill-mannered and unfriendly, even worse than the US Homeland brain-deads at New York Airports.

They Australians really give visitors a going over - they even confiscated a friend's mosquito zapper - even though they were on sale in the shops.

How can someone judge what some narrow minded politician considers 'porn' which might be acceptable, legally, by others. Reminds me of the old Lady Chatterly's Lover arguments.