Rising sea levels: Brought to you by mining

it's true, this website told me so:
http://www.miningnsw.com.au

not that I didn't take part in making that website. but that's not the best bit. The best bit is that this website is actually a parody of a site set up by the NSW Minerals Council, as part of their "Life: brought to you by mining" re-education campaign (http://www.nswmining.com.au). And the NSW minerals council have already taken the site down twice in the last two weeks.

yep. the NSW Minerals Council is having us silenced. who'd have thunk it? surely the Minerals Council is a free-thinking, facts-only information dispenser! who would imagine that they'd stoop to propaganda, and THEN... then try to silence criticism by the community? surely they are friends with the community?

apparently not.

anyway, check out the site, and check the indymedia page, as it has all the details on the background and all that I can't be bothered writing again:
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/node/50223 (this is a copy of the RT press release)
The original is ofcourse, at the risingt tide website: http://www.risingtide.org.au/node/401 (also on the front page at the moment)

the SMH has covered it:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/
industry-closes-anticoal-website/2007/03/04/1172943275688.html

let me know what you think. I did all the design work, with some help for a couple of the images. tell me if you think I've imitated too closely the original site's layout etc. I don't think so. Infact, I'm quite offended that those the NSWMC is claiming MY work, which I easily spent over 30 hours on, as theirs. in fact it really pisses me off.

we're looking for a barrister, who mightbe able to do the case pro bono if it gets to court (we'd love to pay,but all we can afford is costs/accomodation, that kind of thing). if you know anyone who'd been keen and has some experience in this field,
please let us know.

if you want to help us get this story out there, digg it: http://digg.com/environment/Mining_Lobby_Silencing_Community_Comment

cheers
ned

Notes:

this case deals with legislation brought in to comply with the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement. Remember when all those small-media people were up in arms about the FTA? well this is just one reason why.
The actual amendment is available here:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/num_reg/car200412004n405376/index.html
(check out the schedule)

Fair Dealing Parody Information:
Fair Dealing Parody Fact Sheet (Attorney General's Department)

this page is constantly being updated with new sites. nothing will be removed, but I apologise if it makes any comments seem illegitimate.

Happy Valley:

the same shit is happening in NZ, where the big state-owned mining company, Solid Energy, is sueing the Save Happy Valley mob, because they put out a political parody report claiming to be from Solid Energy. check it out!

• http://www.climateimc.org/?q=node/5423

Other media on this story:

-- Mass Media:

• steve being masculine on the second article on the SMH site: http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/ green-group-seeks-afghan-refuge/2007/03/06/1172943416664.html
• the SMH article got printed in both the SMH (p.3) and the Newcastle Herald (p.15) on the monday (5-mar-07)
• the daily telegraph had an article (p.9, 6-mar-07)
• the Inquirer (Scotland!) - http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38024

-- Law blogs:

• http://www.lawfont.com/2007/03/05/notice-and-takedown-australian-style/
• http://www.freedomtodiffer.com/freedom_to_differ/2007/03/i_received_two_.html

-- Other blogs:

• http://machinegunkeyboard.com/?p=384
• http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2007/03/corporate-bullying-brought-to-you-by.html
• http://www.benoquist.com/2007/03/minerals-council-attempts-to-silence.html
• http://earthmums.org/node/32
• http://mickswebsite.blogspot.com/
• http://soulsphincter.blogspot.com/2007/03/parody-copyright-and-mining.h…

-- Other media:

• http://perth.indymedia.org/index.php?action=default&featureview=481
• http://www.nsw.greens.org.au/media-centre/news-releases/ coal-lobby-censors-climate-change-website/
• http://risingtide.org.uk/node/194
• http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php? title=NSW_SLAPPs/NSW_Minerals_Council_vs_Rising_Tide
• http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/05/1554213&from=rss (lots of comments!)
• http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/1177
• http://p2pnet.net/story/11533
• http://www.sydneypeakoil.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=4640

-- Crossposts:

• (RTmedia): http://www.climateimc.org/?q=RT-mining-industry-silencing-dissent-march-07
• (RTmedia): http://annaaniston.blogsome.com/2007/03/06/mining-lobby-silences-dissent/
• (SMH): http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=70269
• (SMH): http://ratbaggy.blogspot.com/2007/03/industry-closes-anti-coal-website.html
• (SMH): http://www.cyberlawcentre.org/unlocking-ip/blog/ 2007/03/controversial-use-of-notice-and.html
• (SMH): http://mobias.tsd.net.au/index.php/archives/2007/03/05/148/
• (SMH): http://remotecontrolsociety.blogspot.com/ 2007/03/industry-closes-anti-coal-website.html
• (SMH): http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/030607ED.shtml