Internet Filtering: Australia heads further towards totalitarianism

[kitehigh]

Prawn, I imagine the government would be very careful to ensure that any so called Bill of Rights did not mess up their capacity to interfere with your life if they felt the faintest interest in so doing.

Perhaps I'm just sadly lacking in trust.

You have every right not to trust the Government Julia. Just look at this latest example.

"Fatal flaws in website censorship plan, says report

TRIALS of mandatory internet censorship will begin within days despite a secret high-level report to the Rudd Government that found the technology simply does not work, will significantly slow internet speeds and will block access to legitimate websites.

The report, commissioned by the Howard government and prepared by the Internet Industry Association, concluded that schemes to block inappropriate content such as child pornography are fundamentally flawed."

"The report, based on comprehensive interviews with many parties with a stake in the internet, was written by several independent technical experts including a University of Sydney associate professor, Bjorn Landfeldt. It was handed to the Government in February but has been kept secret."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technolo...lan-says-report/2008/12/22/1229794328860.html

So they have been sitting on this report since February and in the mean time are pushing ahead with trials. It makes me angry that they know its not workable yet the govt insist on pushing ahead with trials and wasting millions of dollars. Just what we don't need to be doing, wasting money when there are thousands of other worthwhile projects. Why doesn't the govt listen to their own reports and the wishes of the people instead of panding to the vocal interest groups.

 

[Julia]

So they have been sitting on this report since February and in the mean time are pushing ahead with trials. It makes me angry that they know its not workable yet the govt insist on pushing ahead with trials and wasting millions of dollars. Just what we don't need to be doing, wasting money when there are thousands of other worthwhile projects. Why doesn't the govt listen to their own reports and the wishes of the people instead of panding to the vocal interest groups.

I'm not at all surprised. I wonder if they are pushing on because of some sort of deal with Senator Fielding? They need his vote in the Senate for most of their legislation.

 

[prawn_86]

I finally got a response from Conroy, it was in the post and 4 of the same multiple paged letters came. Im guessing it was for the 2 emails and 2 blog posts i made.

Talk about inefficiences, i thought the gov was trying to cut back on spending and carbon footprint...

 

[Julia]

Prawn, it seems to have been a standard response sent out to everyone who had contacted his office. I received it about a week ago.
As you suggest, that's a helluva lot of paper and postage, not to mention work time for his staff. Good to see our tax dollars at work, huh!

 

[prawn_86]

I started to read it and by the 2nd paragraph it was virtually saying "think of the children" so i lost all faith in the rest of the letter.

Any totalitarian regime that uses children as their excuse to implement things isn't worth my time. Once i finish my degree i can move overseas...

 

[kitehigh]

I started to read it and by the 2nd paragraph it was virtually saying "think of the children" so i lost all faith in the rest of the letter.

Any totalitarian regime that uses children as their excuse to implement things isn't worth my time. Once i finish my degree i can move overseas...

Wasn't it Goebbels from the Nazies that said if you use the protection of children as an excuse to implement tough new laws you won't get any resistance from the population.

His responses are typical, pretending to address your concerns when if fact he doesn't give a toss what you or I think. I hope he gets punished in the next election and gets thrown out of office. He will probably than just return to his safe Union/labor party job.

 

[kitehigh]

I'm not at all surprised. I wonder if they are pushing on because of some sort of deal with Senator Fielding? They need his vote in the Senate for most of their legislation.

You probably hit the nail on the head there Julia, typical government back handing going on.

 

[Aussiejeff]

Wasn't it Goebbels from the Nazies that said if you use the protection of children as an excuse to implement tough new laws you won't get any resistance from the population.

His responses are typical, pretending to address your concerns when if fact he doesn't give a toss what you or I think. I hope he gets punished in the next election and gets thrown out of office. He will probably than just return to his safe Union/labor party job.

This filtering thingy will almost certainly be forced upon us all. Because the Gummint knows best. So there.

Remember Ruddock? Reith? :dunno: Conroy will be the same a few years down the track - another "faceless" party hack that will retire in luxury on a mountain of moolah after stuffing some part of our lives up. These men in black all have one thing in common - NO REAL ACCOUNTABILITY (I'm sure we can all think of a few who should really be doing time after being stripped of their taxpayer sponsored wealth).

Accountability? Most politicians hide like cowards behind the fake altruism "but voters hold us accountable". Total BS! Nothing they ever do ever ends in anything worse than a massive, taxpayer funded golden "retirement" handshake after a virtual guaranteed 4 years minimum "full time" employment. Gee, that must REALLY, REALLY hurt!

Their laugh is on us.

 

[Julia]

Well, perhaps we will in fact have the last laugh.

Senator Conroy has announced that the filtering trial which was to have started by now has been delayed, at least until mid January.

Senator Conroy has responded to an article published on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald which revealed that the Government has sat on a report that labeled mandatory ISP filtering as being fundamentally flawed since February. Senator Conroy also has announced the live trial has been delayed until mid-January.

Here is the entirety of his press release:

The Howard Government, at the instigation of the Internet Industry Association (IIA), commissioned a report to be conducted by Mr Peter Coroneos, IIA’s CEO. The previous government provided funding for the research and it was based on terms of reference agreed to by the IIA and the previous government. The report was to inform the previous government of the IIA’s and other stakeholders’ views, and international experience.

The report methodology was a literature review of existing studies as well as interviews and surveys. It involved no empirical testing of filtering technology.

The report highlighted a number of concerns the industry had previously raised with the current and previous governments, such as the potential for dynamic filtering to result in network performance impact and over-blocking and under-blocking content. It was not an analysis of the ALP’s policy.

“The Government is aware of technical concerns raised in the report, and that is why we are conducting a pilot to put these claims to the test,” Senator Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, said today.

“On 10 November I released an Expression of Interest seeking participation of ISPs and mobile telephone providers in a live pilot. A number of applications have been received from ISPs expressing interest in participating in the field pilot of ISP content filtering.”

The live pilot trial will provide evidence on the real world impacts of ISP content filtering, including for providers and internet users. It will provide an invaluable opportunity for ISPs to inform the Government’s approach.

The pilot trial will not begin until mid-January and an announcement regarding participants will be made at that time.

The Howard Government Report is on the Department website at www.dbcde.gov.au

Maybe the article by the SMH, on top of the flood of objections Mr Conroy has received, might eventually make this stupid idea go away.

 

[mayk]

Well, perhaps we will in fact have the last laugh.

Senator Conroy has announced that the filtering trial which was to have started by now has been delayed, at least until mid January.



Maybe the article by the SMH, on top of the flood of objections Mr Conroy has received, might eventually make this stupid idea go away.

Technically it is feasible, with negligible impact on the speed. We don't have high speed to begin with. Secondly this has been implemented on a large scale in China, you do the math.

The problem is not technical as some people seem to think. One solution as proposed by the said senator is to block all the P2P or peering traffic. You blcok peer-to-peer like Kaza or bittorrent, you reduce the piracy and illegal p*rn issue. Then you block the website which is also a trivial matter.

Internet is not as distributed as it once was. Most of it is now centralized, with controlled management. The next evolution of internet will be more controlled, and marketing wise. It is good for business and that is what ISPs care about.

Don't underestimate the technology, if you want it to fail use political power.

 

[Aussiejeff]

Sun Herald article today -

THE ratings used for films could be applied to websites in a bid to better police the internet and protect children from harmful and offensive material, Britain's minister for culture has said. Andy Burnham told Britain's The Daily Telegraph newspaper the government was planning to negotiate with the administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to draw up new international rules for English language websites.

"The more we seek international solutions to this stuff - the UK and the U.S. working together - the more that an international norm will set an industry norm," the newspaper reports the Culture Secretary as saying.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24848641-5005961,00.html

LOL.

I wonder what rating ASF might attract? "AO" due to the adult nature of the content? :arsch:

Or "PG" for the sometimes childish humour? :bananasmi


aj

 

[Aussiejeff]

Sun Herald article today -

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24848641-5005961,00.html

LOL.

I wonder what rating ASF might attract? "AO" due to the adult nature of the content? :arsch:

Or "PG" for the sometimes childish humour? :bananasmi


aj

Further musings on this Big Brother weirdness....

What happens to the official "rating" of a PG rated site if it gets hacked with pr0n?

Does it then get banned?

Imagine if Commsec got pr0n-hacked and was auto kicked from the Gummint's "acceptable websites" list?

*sigh*

This must be the silly season. I bet Conroy takes this idea up anyway.

:arsch:

 

[skint]

I'm not at all surprised. I wonder if they are pushing on because of some sort of deal with Senator Fielding? They need his vote in the Senate for most of their legislation.

I started to read it and by the 2nd paragraph it was virtually saying "think of the children" so i lost all faith in the rest of the letter.

Any totalitarian regime that uses children as their excuse to implement things isn't worth my time. Once i finish my degree i can move overseas...

Hi Julia, you took the words out of my 'cybermouth'. Could well be shades of Harridine, when they used to throw him similar bones for support in other areas.
Prawn, it's certainly predictable. I expect more rhetoric along the lines of "if you disapprove of internet filtering, you must approve of child pornography" and similar tripe. It won't effectively block the nasties, it will block kosher sites (someone mentioned LJHooker being blocked, lol) and will slow internet speeds.
Adult pr0n and goodness knows what else will no doubt be next on the "inapprpriate" list . Really and truly, if the highlight of some poor b*ggar's day is watching wiggly bits and the bumping of uglies, good luck to them. I doubt it would spell the end of civilisation, but the internet malfunctioning in the middle of a trade could well spell the end of someone's hard earned or perhaps interfer with making some more. Daft, really, really, daft!

 

[Aussiejeff]

Adult pr0n and goodness knows what else will no doubt be next on the "inapprpriate" list .... I doubt it would spell the end of civilisation, but the internet malfunctioning in the middle of a trade could well spell the end of someone's hard earned or perhaps interfer with making some more. Daft, really, really, daft!

Oh, but what about all that awful ancient Greek, Roman & Egyptian pr0n that was painted in murals and on "artistic" objects and even crafted into public statues and displays that *gasp* even children could see? Surely that development led to their inevitable downfalls? *tut, tut*

We must applaud Messrs (Messiah's?) Conroy and Rudd for wanting to save us from our durty, durty selves (yuk).

 

[It's Snake Pliskin]

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=rFhbSolKWP0

The youtube video in the link has some interesting information to watch.

 

[Stormin_Norman]

itll slow down data feeds and execution times for our trades.

 

[mayk]

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=rFhbSolKWP0

The youtube video in the link has some interesting information to watch.

Alex Jones is a nut case. But developing a centralized Internet which can be easily controlled and managed is a top priority for technology researchers all around the world. But not necessarily for the reasons outlined in that video, but to earn more profits.

 

[Aussiejeff]

Hahaha! We all knew this one was coming.... where will the madness stop?

FACEBOOK is under fire after removing pictures of breastfeeding mothers from members' pages.

A Facebook group entitled "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!'' has already attracted nearly 85,000 members and a handful of activists held a rally outside its California headquarters over the weekend.

The organisers of the page, which is hosting a lively debate with more than 10,000 comments, said they launched their "Official Petition to Facebook'' after Facebook pulled profile pictures showing women nursing their babies.

"The pictures have been reported as 'obscene' and have been removed - their posters warned not to repost or fear being kicked off of Facebook,'' the group's organisers said.

"We're wondering: what about a baby breastfeeding is obscene? Especially in comparison to MANY other pictures posted all over Facebook that really are obscene.''

Facebook, which has more than 120 million members, said there was no ban on breastfeeding pictures but it did have a policy on how much of a woman's breast could be revealed, similar to that of US newspapers and other media outlets.

"We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful and we're very glad to know that it is so important to some mothers to share this experience with others on Facebook,'' said spokesman Barry Schnitt.

"We take no action on the vast majority of breastfeeding photos because they follow the site's Terms of Use.

"Photos containing a fully exposed breast (as defined by showing the nipple or areola) do violate those Terms and may be removed.

"These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children (over the age of 13) who use the site.

"The photos we act upon are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain."

At the weekend, the Facebook breastfeeding group staged a virtual protest online, called the Mothers International Lactation Campaign, which attracted more than 11,000 followers.

Mothers also held a "nurse-in'' outside Facebook's Palo Alto, California, headquarters the same day, the Palo Alto Daily News reported.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24858770-5005961,00.html

LOL.

So, the US is full of uptight wowsers who gag at the durty, filthy, obscene sight of a breastfeeding mum?

It figures..... :silly:

I wonder what our Messiah's Conroy & Rudd think about this? Supportive of the ban? Maybe all male bared chests should be banned next - all those bare footballer's torsos being flashed around in the media can't be good for the morals of young girls?

 

[Wysiwyg]

Maybe all male bared chests should be banned next -

No ban thanks chubs, just grab a couple of band-aids should anyone be offended by the nipsies.

 

[Aussiejeff]

No ban thanks chubs, just grab a couple of band-aids should anyone be offended by the nipsies.

"Ohhh, the nips are getting biggerrrr..."

LOL


aj