Discussion re Proposed Internet Filtering

[Lapin]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...15/2772467.htm

Don't believe the government's rhetoric that this is all about kiddy porn. The filter could block 99% of adult sites on the net.

http://tinyurl.com/y9tpnut

Who knows what else could be blocked.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

Awww shit! Quick! Everybody download Tor now!

[Praxis]

Yep, my favourite Whirlpool thread (currently at Part ?62 or something phenomenal) is in overdrive about it.

I must go and check in.

I always see what Mark Newton and Geordie Guy are saying, as well as some others. There's some seriously smart people in that thread who really know what's what about it all.

[Praxis]

Here's an article about the announcement (from the Whirlpool)


Mandatory ISP filtering to go ahead

Today, 3:15 pm

Phil Sweeney
The Federal Government plans to implement mandatory ISP filtering for "refused classification" websites, it was announced today.
The government also released the report on the ISP filtering pilot, which was provided to the government by Enex Testlab in October, detailing the results of the blocking accuracy and performance of the filters.
Senator Conroy announced the new initiatives in a curiously scheduled press conference, with journalists only being notified 90 minutes prior to the start of proceedings.
"The Government will introduce legislative amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act to require all ISPs to block RC-rated material hosted on overseas servers", said the announcement.
"RC-rated material includes child sex abuse content, bestiality, sexual violence including rape, and the detailed instruction of crime or drug use.
"The report into the pilot trial of ISP-level filtering demonstrates that blocking RC-rated material can be done with 100% accuracy and negligible impact on internet speed", said Conroy.
Conroy acknowledged that the filter would only block "inadvertent" exposure to R/C content, and the pilot report bluntly states that any technically competent user could circumvent the filtering.
The report also found that the filters "over-blocked" up to 3.4% of sites that were not intended to be filtered, and that high volume sites would likely cause the filters to fail.
Initial reactions to the pilot report have been mixed, with participating ISPs praising the results (in prepared press releases), while others such as Electronic Frontiers Australia stating that it "brings more questions than answers".
Child safety groups have previously denounced the filter, saying it will not protect kids from online dangers.
The DBCDE website is unavailable due to demand for the report, which we have mirrored here.
Links:

• Conroy Media Release
• ISP filtering pilot report

********************************************
Bastards. My partner was the person who first exposed the utter stupidity of this thing by putting in a complaint to ACMA about an anti-abortion site, citing ACMA's own rules about a site having to be "offensive" and to contain offensive material for it to be considered for the much-vaunted "black list". Sure enough, the site got blocked and it became illegal to even link to the site in posts discussing the issue. The outrage from the fundies was kind of fabulous (after all, they want people to see their doctored pics of alleged foetuses having been ripped to shreds as they were from their mother's women untimely rip'd) and it also happened on the same day that Conroy announced at a rare press conference that this sort of thing definitely would NOT happen with his wonderful filter, which was a stunning coincidence.

It started the ball rolling downhill with regard to how utterly futile, unworkable, unmanageable and unwanted this stupid thing is.

And now we get this.

Well, we'll see. We'll see.

I certainly don't recall a mandatory filter being part of any Labor election promises ...

[GUDLUSS]

Excellent. Get the bonfire, the offensive books, a stake and some witches.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

Wait... has this thing actually gone through parliament yet? Or is it just that the reports say it is OK to go ahead? Or both?

[GUDLUSS]

Nah, it's just been given the go-ahead to run it through parliment next year.
And there's an interesting quote from someone we're all very familiar with about this:
"As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."
~Adolf Hitler

[gruber]

Nah, it's just been given the go-ahead to run it through parliment next year.

whoa whoa whoa, so the government has pissed away over $30 mill tax payers money for something that the parliament hasnt even approved yet.

[robertkd]

@GUDLUSS excellent quote

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

@gruber: Unfortunately yes. For a long time even the federal opposition were yelling because of this.