Joe Hockey in Cairns

After a huge breakfast and a nap I thought a stroll along the Cairns boardwalk would be nice. An interesting stream full of crabs and mud skippers caught my eye. Generally, no one is much interested in mud skippers but for some reason a mess of activity broke out behind me. I thought to myself: 'Finally, the importance of the mud skipper is coming to light.' Then I heard from behind: 'I'm Joe Hockey.'

Swoosh! I'm on my feet. Heart in my throat. I wait for him to finish with his small talk with a tourist couple from UK. I think he knows I have a question.

Hand thrust forward to meet mine he introduces himself. No niceties from me. I only want to know one thing, so I ask: 'What is the Liberal Party's policy on net filtering?'

I know that Mr Hockey is personally against it but I want to know how the party will force him to vote, not his personal opinion. He says he's always been against it. Heart still pounding I cut him off and insist that he tell me what the Liberal Party's policy on is on net filtering.

Mr Hockey stated:
. The Liberal Party is against Labor's net filtering plan
. that PC based filtering software is the effective means of keeping kids away from adult material
. that Labor's net filter wont stop the spread of child abuse material.

This is not Mr Hockey's private musings, this is Liberal policy. How they have managed to reign in Mr Abbott's overt Christianity and cosiness with the ACL? I don't know. But, there it is. Hopefully they will campaign on it to give the anti-filter lobby some credibility.

Anyway. The camera crews seemed very interested in this discussion. I am hoping that it might make the news. There were channel 7 crews there along with some other camera crews.

ABC The Drum - Free speech reserved for the chosen ones

ABC The Drum - Free speech reserved for the chosen ones

Nationals propose $1b regional education fund - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Nationals propose $1b regional education fund - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

That's it. I'm in Truss' seat. If he goes to the election with that policy he has my vote. It's that simple. This is the first time in my life that I have ever even considered voting National.

I have emailed Mr Truss about the net filter and discussed it at length with my state LNP representative. I'm not sure if the LNP party members attended the National Party's national conference.

This is what I've done to try to stop the net filter. I don't know how much my efforts contributed to this National Party decision. It's only a little bit but I can only save my bit of the world. Everyone else has to contribute by saving their bit.

Spam and Scamberer

From: http://twitpic.com/1xsqd7

Conroy and Rudd are both creationists who will be addressing churches via a private broadcast run by the Australian Christian Lobby. They probably don't believe in evolution.

http://webcast.australiavotes.org/

Despite it's name, Australia Votes, this is not about democracy. This groups is about a small minority trying to force their bronze age ideas onto the rest of society.

Make it Count | Rudd & Abbott address Christian Voters ::

Make it Count | Rudd and Abbott address Christian Voters ::

ACL. The puppet masters for the Liberal and Labor parties.

Kogen internet filter - keeping our portals safe from spams

Web snooping policy shrouded in secrecy

Web snooping policy shrouded in secrecy:

"The federal government is hiding controversial plans to force ISPs to store internet activity of all Australian internet users - regardless of whether they have been suspected of wrongdoing - for law-enforcement agencies to access."

Didn't we just get an earful of Conroy denouncing collection of wireless data by Google a few days ago only to discover that they are going to do something a million times worse? WTF?!

A return to wowserism in the name of politics

Quite unannounced, the Rudd Government has imposed fines totalling thousands of dollars as a result of raids on adult shops, forcing some out of business and sending the proprietor of a retailer in Sydney's Oxford Street to prison for three months.

The sentence was imposed by a Sydney Magistrate for selling blue movies and confirmed on appeal. The proprietor Daryl Cohen began his sentence last month.

He is, as far as can be established, the first person to go to prison for the victimless crime of pornography for more than 60 years.


Link: ABC's The Drum

safer internet group - Home

safer internet group - Home

Safer internet Group:

We have a practical plan for making the internet safer for our kids through comprehensive policing of the Internet, better education of internet users and by the use of tools and technology that really work.

In December 2009, the Federal Government announced the...

Practical solutions for keeping kids safe online.

Australia: “Filter Conroy” Targets Government Internet Censorship | The Global Herald

Australia: “Filter Conroy” Targets Government Internet Censorship | The Global Herald

The 'Filter Conroy' site makes UK papers.

Draw Mohammed Day causes net filtering creep in Pakistan

So their net filter was probably to protect children now it is used to filter things that their theocracy simply doesn't like.

Porn: Good for us? - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences

Porn: Good for us? - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences: "Scientific examination of the subject has found that as the use of porn increases, the rate of sex crimes goes down."

iTWire - AFP, Microsoft and Federal Government announce ThinkUKnow program to protect kids online

iTWire - AFP, Microsoft and Federal Government announce ThinkUKnow program to protect kids online:

"“Through ThinkUKnow, we’re advising parents, carers and teachers to take an active role in their children’s inline lives, just as they would in real life.

“Doing simple things, like having the family computer in the living room instead of in a child’s bedroom, will go a long way in helping create a safe experience.”"

Suddenly, someone from the federal government thought: "What could we do to make kids safe online?" instead of pandering to the fun police under the guise of protecting kids from net nasties.

Conroy's Shiny Red Button

Conroy's shiny, candy-like button!


History Eraser Button

emski* [AVS/MFL] | MySpace Video

ITWire article:

One can only be happy that the big-red-button will be both free and optional (unlike the Filter); however just like the Filter it will be entirely pointless. This appears to be yet another attempt by the Federal Government to absolve parents of their responsibilities.

From: http://www.itwire.com/it-policy-news/government-tech-policy/39649-sen-conroys-big-red-button-for-internet-kids

Spare video: slower to load so please be patient.

So That’s What Spams And Scams Look Like Coming Through The Portal | Gizmodo Australia

So That’s What Spams And Scams Look Like Coming Through The Portal | Gizmodo Australia

Senator Conroy = NFI

This makes it very clear to me. This guy has NFI!


But he owes everything he knows to Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).



Thanks to Gizmodo:

Less for schools, more for pubs, roll on March

From the Letter page of SMH

God only knows ethical answer

We read that the Anglican Church is trying to stack P&Cs against the new ethics program because, it says, the debate so far has been ''one-sided'' (''Anglicans take ethics course battle to P&Cs'', June 9). Does it not occur to it that the reason most voices have not been against the ethics program is that most people (with and without religion) are in favour of it?

The desperate attempts of Anglican Church leaders to manipulate and meddle are no longer surprising, but they are putting their grubby side on show while (without a hint of irony) insisting ethics cannot be taught outside religion. This would be funny in a Monty Python film, but in reality it is dreadful.

Catherine Suttle Randwick

It is a bit rich for the Greens MP John Kaye to describe the Anglicans' call for its people to get involved in their local P&C regarding school ethics classes as ''branch stacking''. Getting interested in what your children's public school is doing should interest parents with all sorts of ideological views - even Christians. There is a world of difference between branch stacking and democratic advocacy. I am surprised Mr Kaye doesn't seem to recognise it.

Reverend Michael Deal Wingham

If the Anglican Church believes in stacking P&Cs with hitherto uninterested parents to pursue the church's objectives, rather than to support the school, I suggest the church's leaders and supporters need to enrol in the ethics classes.

Marcia Moseley Wyong

They're at it again. Nathan Lee (Letters, June 9) suggests children who do not take scripture may have to go ''back to wasting time in the library''. Being in a library with my nose in a book - whether contemplating the divine or puzzling over an ethical dilemma - sounds like heaven to me.

Adrienne Tunnicliffe Roseville

Filming against the shifting tide of Iranian regulations

Filming against the shifting tide of Iranian regulations:

"Filmmakers must get their concept and script approved and all films need a screening permit. ''In itself, that is not so dreadful - we have a classification system - but it is how you implement this.''"

Media International Australia - Contents - 135 May 2010

Media International Australia - Contents - 135 May 2010: "Children, young people, sexuality and the media
Kath Albury and Catharine Lumby
Since the 2008 Australian Senate Inquiry into the Sexualisation of Children in the Contemporary Media Environment, both the British and Scottish governments have conducted their own inquiries into the role that mediated representations of sex and/or sexuality play in the lives of children and young people. At the same time, scholars, commentators, activists and educators have continued to debate the boundaries between ‘art’ and ‘pornography’ in representations of children and young people; and the boundaries between ‘appropriate’ and ‘inappropriate’ content in popular and educational material for children and young people. This article introduces the multidisciplinary approach taken in this special issue of Media International Australia , which the editors hope will promote positive strategic approaches to promoting safety, agency and well-being for children and young people."

Please Use Porn Responsibly / Violet Blue's concerns about the new anti-porn feminist agenda

Please Use Porn Responsibly / Violet Blue's concerns about the new anti-porn feminist agenda

Violet Blue unpacks the anti-porn feminist group 'Stop Porn Culture'
To read more about the campaign against wowserism, go to: OurSelvesOurPorn

Our Porn, Ourselves is a resource that aims to create an alternative and constructive conversation on the use of pornography by women, and in turn offer balance to the anti-porn feminist agenda.

The Rudd government assumes that they are speaking for everybody and that they know that porn is terribly harmful. I disagree with both of these ideas. They do not speak for everyone. Some people just like porn. Get over it. Propagating the porn harm/porn addiction models is good for political posturing and whipping up religious fervor but that doesn't make it true... no matter how many times you say it.

Stop Internet Censorship - No Mandatory Internet Filter for Australia

Stop Internet Censorship - No Mandatory Internet Filter for Australia: "Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) have today announced their brand new initiative in the fight against the draconian Internet filter. “Time to Tell Mum” is all about encouraging Australians to tell their Mum (and Dad, and other family and friends) about the Internet filter and, more importantly, why the filter will not protect Australian children."

Conroy pledges not to broaden filter scope - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Conroy pledges not to broaden filter scope - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): "Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has given a pre-election undertaking not to broaden the Government's proposed level of internet censorship.

Senator Conroy says the scope of the content covered by the Government's proposed mandatory filter will not be widened by a future Labor government.

'We're making it very clear, this is our policy: refused classification only,' Mr Conroy told the ABC's Four Corners program."

K. Rudd: Internet filter not perfect, but we’re ploughing ahead - prime minister, kevin rudd, internet filtering scheme - ARN

K. Rudd: Internet filter not perfect, but we’re ploughing ahead - prime minister, kevin rudd, internet filtering scheme - ARN: "The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has conceded the proposed mandatory Internet filtering scheme is not perfect but is adamant about its role to reduce inappropriate content in cyberspace.

A viewer on Seven Networks’ Sunrise program asked the Prime Minister why the Government insisted on implementing “a policy which will simply fail in its objective to protect the children?”.

The ISP-level filtering is intended to weed out refused classification material including content depicting acts of child abuse, acts of sexual abuse against children.

“We have a very hard-line approach on this,” Rudd said. “Is any system perfect in dealing with [inappropriate material]? No, but is it our challenge to reduce it to the absolute extent possible? Yes.”"

It can't do what we say it can do but we're gonna do it anyway. WTF?!

AU Gov't Mandatory ISP Filtering / Censorship Plan

On 15 December 2009, the Australian Federal Labor Government announced the third version of their mandatory ISP-level blocking policy/plan, which bears zero resemblance to Labor's November 2007 election policy. The Government plans to mandate that ISPs block adults' access to content on a secret blacklist, compiled by a government agency, that the Government deems unsuitable for adults. However, ISPs will not be required to even offer to block any adults-only material, i.e. X18+ pornography or R18+. Hence, the mandatory ISP blocking system will be utterly useless for a purpose of protecting children online.

Link: Libertus.net

A shorter version of the above:

Stephen Conroy dodges abandoned internet filter election promises

I can't see that he actually answered the question...

Stephen Conroy says... (SBS News 6 June 2010)

Senator Conroy showing that he has NFI about what he wants to protect us from...

There's a staggering number of Australian's being in having their computers infected at the moment, up to 20,000, uh, can regularly be getting infected by these spams, or scams, that come through, the portal.

Google's regrets for what it calls a mistake

Google's regrets for what it calls a mistake: "The federal Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said yesterday: ''If … you were doing a banking transaction or transmitting personal information, they could have hoovered it up, sucked it into their machine.''"

Senator Conroy shows his ignorance about all things communications again. If you're doing your banking you'll be on HTTPS so the data will be encrypted as outlined Here.

Filter Conroy

Filter Conroy

Make Senator Conroy choose between his Internet filter and his job - http://filter-conroy.org

Cindy Gallop: Make Love Not Porn

Ms Gallop is advocating better sex education. Porn's always been here and always will be. Abstinence only education is useless in a world with freely available porn. Real sex education will neutralize the effects of porn. Luckily a theist fv(#tard contributed some bible quotes to the comments section. Didn't they realise that the grownups were talking?

Alain de Botton is talking about porn being based in offices now whereas much of the porn made in 18th century France was based in nunneries.

The truth about Opus Dei | World news | The Guardian

Some were helped by a celice, a spiked ring, worn so tightly around their legs that they would bleed, in order to suppress desire.

The truth about Opus Dei | World news | The Guardian

Calls for internet access to be enshrined as a fundamental right

Calls for internet access to be enshrined as a fundamental right:

"Internet use has become so woven into everyday life that some technology experts say online access should be legally protected, even to the point of considering it a human right."

Imagine this Labor government allowing this. The only rights they are interested in are those of their religious right puppet masters.

A new search engine for ''privacy-conscious'' Australians, Startpage Australia, will be launched this week as an alternative to Google.

SMH

This article doesn't look very promising at the start but it ends as above. I'm glad I grit my teeth and read to the end.

StartPage doesn't sound very promising to begin with. How many Google Killers have we seen come and go? Anything saying Australian Google Killer just makes me think of the Sensis flop. Anyway, StartPage isn't an Australian startup... or up start. StartPage is Ixquick's search engine offering. They say:

We want to extend a warm welcome to the people of Australia, and invite them to use the Startpage search engine as a tool to protect their privacy and anonymity.

From: ITWire

Filter goes ahead regardless

Filter goes ahead regardless:
There's a poll over there for fun.

"Unacceptable Website"
I find religious websites that say things like:
. Scientists will go to hell for accepting the Theory of Evolution
. Women are less than men because god said
. Homosexuals should be stoned to death like the bible says
Can I get them banned? I don't want to but if this filter is in and it is stopping me from seeing sites I want, reporting sites using religion to generate hate will be a full time occupation for me. If we live in a society that lets me get sites banned because I am uncomfortable about their content (bearing in mind that there's no such thing as a child porn site - it all happens P2P).

$128 million!
Think of all the people you know. Now think of all the people they know. Now imagine all the tax that all of these people will work all of their lives to pay. This is the kind of money we are talking about wasting on a filtering system that cannot work but makes people like the Australian Christian Lobby feel like they are regaining control of people's sex lives. This is for a filter that can be bypassed permanently for USD20 per month.

iiNet? Telstra?
Didn't these 2 ISPs pull out of the trial?
iiNet's Michael Malone appeared on 4 Corners explaining why this was a bad idea. Is Conroy simply lying about ISP support for this idea?

If Jim Wallace and Bernadette McMenamin say it's a brilliant idea run away! If the US Secretary of State, the US Ambassador to Australia, Google and Yahoo say it's a bad idea, run away! The moral of the story... Run Away!!!

Critics claim the policy will not result in any meaningful dent in the availability of harmful internet content, will create significant freedom-of-speech issues and will be prone to abuse by politicians.

Add to this the opportunity cost. Hundreds of millions of dollars that could pay for real policing and real care for real people who've been harmed by child abuse. We are letting children be abused while chasing the filtering rainbow.

Tweets aren't looking good...

Bernadette McMenamin:
Delimiter:
Somebody Think Of The Children:
And:

All she can do is denounce anyone who opposes her point of view as a child abuser. This is not an argument. This is an argument bomb.

Travellers red-faced over new customs porn rule | Courier Mail

POWERS allowing customs officials to search travellers arriving in Australia for pornography have been labelled as "sneaky" and an "invasion of privacy".

The first question on custom’s Incoming Passenger Cards has been changed to ask people if they are carrying pornography.

Those answering "yes" will have their material examined by customs officials.

Travellers red-faced over new customs porn rule | Courier Mail

Well, that should encourage people to stream all their porn in future.

It's Time To Tell Mum

Link: It's Time To Tell Mum

Talking Points:

#1: The entire list of what will be banned is secret.
The Australian Government has compiled a list of websites they believe Australian’s shouldn’t be able to access. At the moment the list doesn’t include thousands of the sites that should be banned, and includes sites that shouldn’t be banned, including a dentist and a tuck shop lady.

#2: The filter will block access to material that is currently legal to possess and view.
Any films, publications and games that the Government deems to be offensive will be banned. The Government should help Australian families make choices about what information we have access to, not decide we don't have access to perfectly legal films, books, or computer games.

#3: The methods the Government plan to implement will affect your mum's internet connections forever.
Even mums want an internet connection that's faster, cheaper and more secure, but the technology being forced on internet companies by the Government has the potential to damage all of these.

#4: The way they plan to implement the ban would not keep child pornographers from sending or receiving illicit material OR from making child pornography.
Of course it would be great if there was a way to make sure children were never exposed to child pornography, never used for child pornography, and for child pornography to end completely. But, internet censorship does not do this. It will in no way stop people from making child pornography, or stop them from distributing it. In fact, the filter will probably make it harder to catch people involved in these illegal activities.

#5: Internet censorship will not protect children from being exposed to the billions of other pages that are illicit, but not on their list.
There are too many dangers online for the filter to keep children safe from them all. The filter will create a false sense of security. If mums begin to rely on the filter to keep their children safe, rather than monitoring their children’s internet use themselves, children will actually be less safe than before the filter was in place.

#6: The filter does nothing to protect children from what mums are really concerned about, like online predators, cyber-bullies, spam, viruses, and other cyber threats.
The only safeguards to these kinds of threat are parental monitoring of their children’s activities online. Internet censorship will not keep children safe, no matter what the Government says.

Google SafeSearch

Senator Conroy wants to filter but Chrome comes with a SafeSearch function built in to keep kids away from adult content.

Conroy: We’ll block 50,000 sites – The Stump

Conroy: We’ll block 50,000 sites – The Stump

So... Senator, if you never had any intention of having a list of 50,000 sites on your black list, why did you ask the techs about it?

The whole black list thing... it's a bit of a zebra list given that a number of sites that really weren't that black and that it will make no difference to people viewing these sites.

Filtering by computer fails on judgment

The plan to filter the internet for material refused classification under Australian law is legally flawed. Australia's classification law is not compatible with the Rudd government's proposal, and in fact has its own problems that make it unsuitable as a basis for any internet ''clean feed''.

Publications, movies and computer games ''refused classification'' cover a wide spectrum. They deal with child pornography, explicit sex and extreme violence, and controversial areas such as euthanasia and abortion, which are outlawed in all or part of Australia.

SMH Link:

You know who's very quiet through all of this debate? The religious right. They don't need to argue publicly for the filter because Conroy and Rudd have already told them it's going ahead.

Minister slams Facebook breaches

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has attacked the social networking site Facebook and its former college student founder for what he says is its ''complete disregard'' for privacy.

Senator Conroy is under fire from many in the internet industry for his proposed mandatory net filter. He has previously attacked Google, a key critic of the filtering plan, but last night in a Senate estimates hearing turned his attention to Facebook.

''Facebook has also shown a complete disregard for users' privacy lately,'' Senator Conroy said in response to a question from a government senator.

BrisTimes Link:
Related Tweets:

This has to be a joke. Conroy has personified the invasion of privacy. He wants to determine what goes on in every bedroom in the country. Today it's no normal porn via computers. Recently the government introduced a "are you carrying porn" question onto the Australian visa applications. Tomorrow he'll be checking that sex is performed in Opus Dei approved missionary position.

His character attacks rolled forward in this session. Now he's after Google over their gathering of wireless network data while photographing for google maps. Again, unlike Conroy, Google stopped when the public objected. See this important step that you are missing, Conroy? It's the "listen to the public" step of democracy. Very important. You don't have the power to make laws and decisions, you have temporary permission. Fuck it up (like now) and you get voted out.

Ludlam says it best:

"The minister's on a bit of a hair trigger so anyone who's criticised the net filters becomes a target for character assasination, whether it be an advocacy group like EFA [Electronic Frontiers Australia] or one of the world's largest technology companies like Google," Senator Ludlam said.

"It comes across as really petulant - the guy's a minister of the Crown, you don't need to be bawling out technology companies just because they've taken a critical stand on his filter."

"I just think the minister's being a little bit oversensitive to criticism - it would be helpful sometimes if rather than shooting the messenger he listens to what he's being told."

Senator Ludlam and Colin Jacobs, chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia, both agreed that the Google Wi-Fi bungle was a serious matter but said Senator Conroy appeared to be beating it up for political gain.

"The Minister's hyberbole, bordering on hysterical, is counter-productive," said Jacobs.

Conroy delays internet filter bill - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Senator Conroy says if the filter was brought in, he would consider allowing child pornography websites to be left online for a short time to catch people maintaining or using them.

Conroy delays internet filter bill - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Conroy's perennial confusion is showing here:
Firstly, if the police need to view a blacklisted site they will use a proxy, like everyone else.
Secondly, child abuse material is traded via P2P networks (I'm trying to speak slowly for you, Senator).
Thirdly, so you admit that it will hamper police work?

Customs porn inquiry upsets Sex Party (SMH)

FOR years the adult industry has fought to keep the government out of your bedroom. Now it is fighting to keep it out of your luggage as well.

The Incoming Passenger Card for people entering Australia was recently changed to ask if they are carrying pornography. If passengers declare they are, customs officials will be able to conduct a search to assess whether the material is illegal.

The Australian Sex Party says the move marks a new era of official investigations into people's private lives. It notes the lack of a formal definition of pornography means that a variety of erotica may need to be declared.

Customs porn inquiry

Who invited this dreadful government into our bedrooms? If anyone imagined that the netfilter wasn't just a puritan power grab this should disabuse them of that notion.

For Conroy and co., "protecting the children" means protecting the churches and their anti-porn, anti-fun campaign. You know it's policy on the run when the Australian Christian Lobby, riddled with young earther denialism, thinks it's a good idea.

Travellers to be searched for porn

Australian customs officers have been given new powers to search incoming travellers' laptops and mobile phones for pornography, a spokeswoman for the Australian sex industry says.

Fiona Patten, president of the Australian Sex Party, is demanding an inquiry into why a new question appears on Incoming Passenger Cards asking people if they are carrying "pornography".

Patten said officials now had an unfettered right to examine travellers' electronic devices, marking the beginning of a new era of official investigation into people's private lives. She questioned whether it was appropriate to search people for legal R18+ and X18+ material.

Asher Moses' article

So now they want their filter nonsense at the airport. What is it with these people. Who cares if people have normal porn on their laptops.

The company Conroy keeps... Facebook Blocked in Pakistan Over Prophet Images

Pakistan's government ordered Internet service providers to block Facebook amid anger over a page that encourages users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. (May 19)

This is the company we will keep. Some loons decide that something offends them and Conroy will ban it. This is essentially what this filter is. Some religious wingnuts decided that porn was bad for other people. If history is anything to go by, they probably use it but that's OK cause they're special and they can handle it (I'm looking at you, Haggard).

Julian Assange on Dateline

The WikiLeaks website is fast gaining credibility as a whistleblowing site for political secrets, but one of the people behind it, Australian Julian Assange, remains an international man of mystery.

His biggest coup so far has been obtaining classified video of Iraqi civilians and Reuters staff being gunned down by a US military helicopter, dubbed Collateral Murder, which has been watched over six million times.

The site also released what it claimed was the list of websites to be banned under the Australian Government’s proposed internet filter, before parts of WikiLeaks itself were blacklisted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

But Julian Assange does all this with no home or office, constantly travelling the world, so Mark Davis tracked him down to Norway, followed him to Sweden, where many of WikiLeaks servers are based, then to Iceland, where he was advising politicians on turning the country into a safe haven for whistleblowers, and finally to Australia, where he was told his passport would be cancelled amid WikiLeaks being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.

So what did he manage to find out about this shy former-computer-hacker-turned-investigative-journalist?

Link: SBS Dateline

Wikileaks is fighting this fight. I'm trying to contribute to their costs but paypal is stuffing up on me. I'll get there though. Best USD25 I'll ever spend.

ACMA's blacklist - Google Search

ACMA's blacklist - Google Search

Challenge To Existing Australian Censorship Rules Rejected

While we've been covering the ongoing back and forth about proposed new internet censorship rules in Australia we didn't quite realize that Australia already has internet censorship rules in place. Michael Scott points us to the news of Electronic Frontiers Australia (sort of an EFF for Australia, but with no official relationship between the two) challenging an attempt by Australian officials to censor a blog post EFA put together to highlight Australian censorship...

Link:

The Media Line

"According to the Saudi daily Okaz, the woman then allegedly laid into the religious policeman, punching him repeatedly, and leaving him to be taken to the hospital with bruises across his body and face.

“To see resistance from a woman means a lot,” Wajiha Al-Huwaidar, a Saudi women’s rights activist told The Media Line. “People are fed up with these religious police, and now they have to pay the price for the humiliation they put people through for years and years. This is just the beginning and there will be more resistance.”

“The media and the Internet have given people a lot of power and the freedom to express their anger,” she said. “The Hai’a are like a militia, but now whenever they do something it’s all over the Internet. This gives them a horrible reputation and gives people power to react.”"

The Media Line:

The net at work. Saudi women are seeing that their sisters have it better then they do and they aren't gonna take it any longer. Brilliant!

Study casts doubt over net filter support

As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd attempts to fend off a slump in the Labor's approval rating, evidence is mounting that one of its key initiatives - mandatory internet filtering - may not prove as popular with voters as the government had hoped.

If Australia censors the web, what will the others do?

In February, a phone survey run by McNair Ingenuity indicated widespread support for the initiative among ordinary voters, but new findings from a study commissioned by the Safer Internet Group indicate that the more parents find out about the proposed filter, the less they support it.

The filter has been mired in controversy since its inception, with internet industry groups, academics and backbenchers labelling it heavy handed. The US State Department has also raised concerns about the plan.

Link:

Virtual tumbleweeds blow across NBN discussion website

Perhaps it's an idea just a bit ahead of its time.

A web discussion page established by the government to debate the recommendations of a study into the national broadband network has attracted just six brief contributions in its first week online.

The site, hosted by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy uses a wiki format to encourage users to proffer their thoughts on the implementation study as part of a broader public consultation.

Link:

"Ahead of its time"... really? Nothing new about government obfuscation and double speak.

What's the point of talking to Senator Conroy's Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy? He will only listen to the religious right, his pet techs and the people who are spruiking the net filtering panacea.

He doesn't speak to or for people making a living online. I suspect he's never even met a netizen. I am part of the digital economy. I find the Senator's ignorance is disturbing. He's any industry's nightmare. A politician who is completely oblivious to his portfolio's needs and wishes and unwilling to listen to industry experts is incompetence at it's most dangerous.

The site mentioned site looks like it is designed to serve two purposes:
1) give other non-netizens a place to vent
2) create the appearance of consultation.
A third purpose would be to waste millions of dollars... but that serves no purpose.

The one piece of information that I really want is when the Senator is up for election. That is a piece of data I can hang my hat on.

The Government's 'Wiki'

On folly, freedom and filters

Wearing my EFA Board Member hat, I spoke today at an event at Parliament House hosted by the Menzies Research Centre in a debate with Tony McLellan of the Australian Christian Lobby. The audience was primarily members of the Australian Liberal Students Federation; young Liberals destined for jobs as political staffers and politicians.

Below is the text of my part of the debate.

Let me begin with a short anecdote.

On Monday night as we watched Four Corners and Q&A, my not-quite-13 year old daughter, Hannah, made a particularly interesting observation. “Gee, Dad,” she said, “I think I’ve just seen more rude pictures in that story than I’ve ever seen on the Internet.”

Link: EFA

Senator Ludlam's net filter speech

Senator Scott Ludlam's speech on Internet Filtering Legislation from Greens MPs on Vimeo.

IFPI’s child porn strategy

Start with child porn, which everybody agrees is revolting, and find some politicians who want to appear like they are doing something. Never mind that the blocking as such is ridiculously easy to circumvent in less than 10 seconds. The purpose at this stage is only to get the politicians and the general public to accept the principle that censorship in the form of ”filters” is okay. Once that principle has been established, it is easy to extend it to other areas, such as illegal file sharing. And once censorship of the Internet has been accepted in principle, they can start looking at ways to make it more technically difficult to circumvent.

Link:

An article espousing what I think they're up to. Starts with child abuse material because no-one could defend it, then it moves onto other censorship. They want us under control and I don't want to be under their control.

Censorship is a crime against ships

What will be filtered?

From:

Net Filter companies losing ISP business

Sales of web content filters to the telecommunications industry have frozen as reluctant Internet Service Providers (ISPs) wait for possible subsidy under the Federal Government’s national Internet content filter plan.

Two of the largest web filtering vendors, Marshall 8e6 and Netsweeper, reported Australian ISPs have iced plans to buy content filters that would be used to provide optional filtering services for subscribers.

Link:

Opt in filtering hardware sales to ISPs have fallen. ISPs are waiting to see what they will be forced to buy or subsidized to buy before buying. Many ISPs offered filtered internet before all this started. The take up rates were nominal because no-one wants this. The idea that more ISPs offer this is being blocked by Conroy's filter.

I see dumb people. They're everywhere. They don't know that they're dumb.

Have you ever noticed how incompetent people are often incredibly confident? Meanwhile, highly-skilled folks underestimate their ability to perform. That's called the Dunning-Kruger Effect named for Justin Kruger and David Dunning of Cornell University who published their study of the cognitive bias in a 1999 scientific paper. ABC Radio National's The Science Show recently explored the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

BoingBoing

Are you reading this Conroy? You are very confident that your filter will work. You have tech experts trying to explain this to you but you can't hear them over the roar of your incompetence.

ABC radio report:

NYTimes article from 2000

Overcoming bias

Rudd retreats on web filter legislation

KEVIN Rudd has put another election promise on the backburner with his controversial internet filtering legislation set to be shelved until after the next election.

A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said yesterday the legislation would not be introduced next month's or the June sittings of parliament.

Link:

This hasn't gone away. They are going into election mode so the netfilter doesn't get mentioned much... just like last time when they were in election mode.

I followed Rudd's election closely. I would have known if this was mentioned because I would have stopped thinking positively of him. The Greens (my vote) are coming through for us. I hope the Greens get balance of power in the Senate. A nice three way split like in the UK.

If we stop voting for them will they leave us alone??

Support fading for Government's internet filter

Support for the Federal Government's proposed mandatory internet filtering program is waning, with a study revealing that fewer people back the move.

Earlier this week Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said a re-elected Labor government would not expand the proposed internet censorship.

Link:

"... re-elected Labor government would not expand the proposed internet censorship."
Is Conroy-Speak for Labor will expand the filtered list or he hasn't fully disclosed what will be on the list, like Rudd didn't really talk about the filter before the election. It was there but it was buried.

Governments should not censor the internet

We live under the illusion that governments can protect us from the evils of the world.

Paedophilia, extreme violence, lessons in self-harm and suicide, race hatred and terrorism. We have every right to expect governments to monitor hate and terror sites and arrest and prosecute those who aim to do harm to others.

Link:

Twitter jokes on trial: how one tweet turned a man into a criminal

Chambers was referring to the fact that the airport was closed due to a snowstorm. He was flying out the next week from Doncaster, England to visit his girlfriend in Ireland and was anxious his flight would be canceled. He did what is a very common thing in the age of social media - he put his thoughts out there for people to read. He assumed what he said would be seen only by his followers, sort of like talking in a room full of friends. But days later, the tweet was found by airport manager Shaun Duffield who told the court yesterday that the threat was not considered to be credible and no effect on airport operations.

Link:

How do people like this get to stay judges. Had to have twitter explained to him!? A tweet constitutes a credible threat to an airport? Stephen Fry is paying his fines but he has a criminal record now which means he can't become an accountant.

This has probably turned the tweeter from a mild mannered future accountant into a civil liberties crusader. Welcome to the fight, Mr Chambers.

Ban Piano Lessons Next!!!!

Sex-charge teacher 'set up spy camera in toilet'

A former piano teacher who sexually abused several children in central Victoria installed a spy camera in a homemade toilet used by his victims, a court heard today.

Colin Harold Doo, 51, formerly of Romsey, pleaded guilty at the Supreme Court today to 36 charges including 12 counts of committing an indecent act in the presence of a child under 16, nine of producing child pornography and seven of rape.

Link:

They go on to talk about computers, hard drives, DVDs and so on. Nowhere in this story does it say that this material was sourced on the net.

This is how kids are protected, by their parents.

A MAN filmed a young girl and her mother while they used his portable shower during a camping trip, a court has been told.

Rodney Paul Howell, 50, created the videos during camping trips to Double Island Point, north of the Sunshine Coast, with the family between 2005 and 2008.

Link:

The parents were vigilant and worked out that a creepy old guy had befriended them to film their 11 year old. The step father is to be commended. He did his job as a parent and looked out for his step daughter.

This is how children will be protected. Not with Conroy's magic bullet.

Internet filter could scupper NBN speeds

An internet service provider (ISP) says the Federal Government's proposed filter has the potential to cause bottlenecks and webpage blackouts, making its high-speed National Broadband Network less viable.

The Government announced the filter two years ago as part of its cyber safety program to protect children from pornography and offensive material. Last year it ran tests on the system.

John Lindsay from internet company Internode says such a filtering slowdown will make a big difference to businesses, especially when downloading files.

Link:

Internet censorship remains part of Conroy's agenda

The government has postponed its web-filtering legislation to defuse it as an election issue

IT was ironic that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced the postponement of his internet filtering legislation via an adviser last week. Advice was not something he was fond of taking. Sensing a voter backlash on the legislation, which was supposed to be introduced into the parliament before the federal election, Rudd and Conroy are banking on removing it as an election issue. But will they?

If Conroy had introduced the legislation before the election, he might have risked the ire of the Greens and Electronic Frontiers Australia, but at least it would have been done and dusted. It would then be up to other political parties to say that they would try to overturn it, a much more difficult task. Now the election could be turned in part into a referendum on the issue.

Link:

I like this article. It actually just admits that adults want to access adult material on the net and that doesn't mean they are pedophiles or perverts. Thus:

He also has miscalculated the number of people who use the internet to seek out sexual material. At last count there were 238 million adult sex sites on the internet and millions of searches every day are for sexually related material. Does Conroy think all these people live in Upper Volta or New Zealand? His insistence on calling them pedophiles and perverts has only hardened their resolve to bring him down. Sexual pleasure on the internet is a personal freedom that many adults will not give up lightly.

Amid Calls for Transparency, Pope Describes Dangers of Digital Age

"At a conference on digital media at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI attacked the idea of transparency in the Internet age, warning that digital transparency exacerbates tensions between nations and within nations themselves and increases the 'dangers of ... intellectual and moral relativism,' which can lead to 'multiple forms of degradation and humiliation' of the essence of a person, and to the 'pollution of the spirit.' All in all, it seemed a pretty grim view of the wide-open communication environment being demanded by the Internet age."

Link:

Article:

The Vatican has to be sick of Web 2.0's attention. I'm not planning on cutting them a break. Was this what Rudd and the Pope talked about when Rudd visited the Vatican? Is the Australian Government's filter designed to limit the usability of the internet because it is upsetting the Vatican's power balance?

Google runs to US over Australian filter

Google has confirmed that it has gone to the US State Department, including other parties, to voice its concerns on the filter.

"Google is deeply concerned by Australia's plans to introduce a widely scoped, mandatory ISP filtering regime. We have voiced our concerns publicly and with many groups including the US State Department," Google spokesperson Lucinda Barlow told ZDNet.com.au today.

The search giant has not been quiet about its views on the system which it has said has too broad a scope and is "heavy-handed".

Link:

Libs quiz Conroy over US filter concern

Queensland Opposition Senator Sue Boyce has written to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith asking for more information on the US Government's inquiry about Australia's internet filtering project.

Boyce wrote the two-page letter to the ministers yesterday (and sent a copy to the press) asking for clarification of US State Department spokesperson Noel Clay's statement that the US Government had "raised concerns on the matter" and a statement by Conroy's office that the US State Department had "asked for, and received, background information". The letters to Conroy and Smith are almost identical in content.

Link:

Filter looks as though it is delayed

The Australian is reporting that the Government has shelved the introduction of the filter until after the election:

KEVIN Rudd has put another election promise on the backburner with his controversial internet filtering legislation set to be shelved until after the next election.

A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said yesterday the legislation would not be introduced next month's or the June sittings of parliament.

Link:

Australian IT article:

If they don't drop the idea before the election we will be dealing with a Howard style "mandate to introduce..." the filter. This has to be fought tooth and nail right up to the election so that they have to talk about it. Remember how much Howard talked about GST before that election??? Remember how much Rudd talked about the filter before the last election? They didn't. They are working on a variation of "He who is silent is said to consent... he who is ignorant is said to have erred in full knowledge.

Blacklist costs could beat filter

Today the costs of running a blacklist were made clear, showing that the filter could be a very expensive operation.

When a URL is submitted to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) it will cost between $173 and $685 per item to investigate, regardless of whether it is "refused classification" or not.

ZDNet Link:

This sort of blank cheque approach is disturbing. The ACMA might grow large earning their management higher incomes but if all this money is not actually stopping real harm to children what is the point?

Global eyes on Australian NBN, filter

Several speakers at the Communications Day Summit in Sydney this week raised the issue that Australian communications policy initiatives such as the National Broadband Network (NBN) and the internet filter have attracted international attention — but not always in a good way.

Sounding somewhat embarrassed about the filter, Greens Senator and communications spokesperson Scott Ludlam said he had been bogged down taking calls form overseas journalists, asking about the filter — "Who is behind it? What is it?", adding he recently fielded a barrage of questions from a journalist in California.

ZDNet Link:

Speed Testing: Keep your results.

Do some speed tests and track your results. Take screen shots.

Lets see if the filter slows your speed down.

ZDNet speed tester:

Relax: Conroy's filter can be safely ignored

Years ago, I was with a group of journalists discussing region-coded DVDs with the head of a large electronics manufacturer. We asked how vendors got away with stripping the region-coding feature from the DVD players they sell, which technically seemed to be an illegal violation of DVD licensing and copyright laws. "It's funny," he replied. "It just seems to happen whenever the shipping containers pass under the gantries on the highway from the port. We can't do anything about it."

I suspect similar conversations will be common in a few years, after Senator Stephen Conroy's misguided (he prefers the word "modest") internet filter has been implemented and vendors are selling computers that are pre-configured to bypass it completely or small downloadable filter-circumvention apps undo years of debate and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars with a single click.

And then...

Now, call me old-fashioned, but if you're going to pass a law, tradition says that you also set down penalties for breaking that law — you know, so people don't break it. For example, Australia's content censorship legislation (PDF) — which Conroy keeps referencing, saying the filter is just an extension of it — lays down fines and potential jail time for infringements. If you possess, circulate, or even facilitate the acquisition of copies of "Stuntgirl" or any of the hundreds of other RC movies, publications and games that are banned in Australia, you're going to be in trouble. But if you help your best mate download a copy online by circumventing the filter, well, that seems to be OK.

ZDNet Article

As if they are just gonna let the laws be ignored. Could you imagine that they would say: 'We are going to reduce the speed limit at schools to 30km/h, but we wont enforce it, honest. We are doing this to protect children but we wont enforce it, honest.'

Come on Conroy. This is bullshit.

Conroy denies filter circumvention offence planned

The office of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has acknowledged the existence of a protected online forum used to discuss controversial issues about the internet filter, but has appeared to reject forum suggestions from departmental officials that the Government could make it an offence to promote methods of circumventing the filter.

The site is being hosted internally by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE). In screenshots sighted by Delimiter today, ISPs such as Pacific Internet and Webshield - which will be required to implement the scheme if it goes ahead - discuss the filter with un-named departmental officials.

Delimiter Article:

It wont be made an offence to circumvent a filter. Come on. Who could believe this? Either they just will later when it makes no difference or there's already a law on the books that they'll be able to use to prosecute... something about "using a carriage service" or something obscure.

Filter legislation not drafted: govt forum

Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) today revealed what it said was evidence that Stephen Conroy's department was hosting a protected online forum to discuss controversial issues about the government's internet filter initiative, including the lack of a complete draft of the planned legislation as of several weeks ago and the possibility of making it an offence to promote methods of circumventing the filter.

Delimiter has sighted apparent screenshots from the forum possessed by the EFA. The digital rights advocacy group believes the site is being hosted internally by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE). In the screenshots, internet service providers (ISPs) such as Pacific Internet and Webshield - which will be required to implement the scheme if it goes ahead - discuss the filter with unnamed departmental officials.

ZNet Link:

EFA Story:

Delimiter Story:

Australia pushes net censorship in Washington

Australian government representatives have recently met US officials in Washington to discuss concerns over the forthcoming internet censorship regime raised by the US ambassador to Australia and the US State Department.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has come under increasing pressure to reveal the content of discussions with US officials after the US State Department said it had "raised concerns" with Australia and the US ambassador said net censorship was not necessary.

Link:

Conroy's still at it!

Early news report into the phenomenon of "internet"

A classic early '90s news report into the "revolution" of "internet".

"… there's not a lot of cursing or swearing, there's not a lot of personal cuts, there's not a lot of the put-downs that one would expect to find. There's not screenfulls full of 'Go to hell'…"

Link:

Great video about this new thing called the internet.

At the end of the report they say that the government is looking at how best to regulate it.

Minister asks censors to reassess approval of sadistic film

THE federal government has asked censorship authorities to reconsider their approval of an Italian film - twice banned in Australia over its portrayal of sexual sadism - for release here on DVD.

On Tuesday the Classification Board approved the distribution of Salo o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (The 120 Days of Sodom), overturning a 1998 decision to ban the film in Australia.

The board gave the film an R18+ rating and compelled it to carry a warning that it contained ''scenes of torture and degradation, sexual violence and nudity''.

But yesterday the Home Affairs Minister, Brendan O'Connor, asked the Classification Review Board to reassess the decision, although he did not say if he wanted the finding overturned.

Link: SMH

Retrospective bans now... 1984 anyone?

R18+ games far from a done deal

Gamers' celebrations of an impending R18+ rating for video games may be premature, as South Australia's Attorney-General says he may still veto any proposed changes to game classification laws.

The federal Attorney-General's department has confirmed that the matter will next be up for discussion on May 7, after 60,000 submissions were received from the public.

SMH

Gamers are still being wet nursed by the government.

US ambassador critical of Conroy's internet filters.

On ABC's Q&A program last night, Mr Bleich said the "internet has to be free" and that there were other means of combating nasty content such as child pornography.

"We have been able to accomplish the goals that Australia has described, which is to capture and prosecute child pornographers ... without having to use internet filters," he said.

"We have other means and we are willing to share our efforts with them ... it's an ongoing conversation."

Link: SMH

Previously Senator Conroy said that the US didn't really mind his filter idea. I don't think that it could be made any clearer than this.

Q and A episode:

Conroy's had a big day.

Net filters a 'modest measure': Conroy

The federal government's plan to bring in a mandatory internet filter is a modest regulatory measure that will combat illegal activity, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says.

In a speech to The Sydney Institute yesterday, Senator Conroy again defended the plan against opponents who believe it is akin to censorship.

Link: SMH

Poll results are telling. 2% think it's a good idea. The other 98% are split between "radical like China's" on 28% and "unnecessary" at 70%. This is 28000 plus votes.

Given that the Government couldn't care less whether people want the filter or not, polls are a bit of a waste of time. If only 2% of people actually want this crap it makes it a very expensive proposition. Imagine if we made those 2% of people pay the hundreds of

"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. 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, Mein Kampf p.403.

Why does Conroy insist on wearing a target on his back?

Is it that he might be a little bit dim, do you think? Because that's the conclusion I'm coming to following his unintentionally hilarious insistence yesterday that the Internet isn't very special. No minister, no it's not. Near instantaneous communications across the face of the planet, and unimaginably vast repository of human knowledge and celebrity sex videos available at the end of their fingertips, whole worlds created where none existed just a few years ago. Nothing special about that.

Link:

Australian Consumers' Association

Australian Consumers Association

Australian Consumers' Association's Response to Department of Communications, IT and the Arts.

Web filter splits opposition

THE federal opposition is yet to formulate a position on the proposed internet filter despite Labor flagging its intention to introduce the measure before the last election.

The failure of Coalition leader Tony Abbott or his communications spokesman Tony Smith to indicate whether they would support the bill reflects divisions within the party about the government's plan to block access to internet sites banned under Australia's classification rules.

Link:

Abbott is non-committal. I'm hoping he's watching the electorate and will jump the way that they want it.

Without civil liberties, government is just a criminal racket

"The only difference between a Nation State and a Mafioso protection racket is the letterhead and the rituals -- and the series of concessions, hard-won over eight centuries, that we call 'civil liberties'."

That's how I was going to start this article about the importance of defending our civil liberties online. I was going to write about dusk falling at the end of another busy day, the shopkeeper counting the cash in his till, only to have two thugs turn up to demand their share as "protection money" lest something terrible happen to his business. Or his kneecaps. I was going to compare this to the State demanding its share of the shop's profits in the form of taxes to pay for the state's defence, and the shopkeeper's defence, from unspecified enemies. And the penalties if that money wasn't paid.

Link: EFA

Queenslander accused of sex assault

Canadian police have arrested and charged a 37-year-old Queensland man for grooming a child on the internet and then sexually assaulting her.

Newfoundland police allege that Anthony John Porter of Woody Point committed the sex crimes within days of arriving in the province.

Link:

The net filter would not stop this sort of thing from happening. What it will do is give parents a false sense of security. If this is a case of a person being groomed online, this problem will be made worse by parents having a false sense of security.

No proof ISP filtering works: Abbott

OPPOSITION leader Tony Abbott says there is insufficient evidence ISP filtering is effective enough to warrant his full support.

Mr Abbott hasn't been convinced internet filtering can really trap net nasties as there was no substantial technical evidence.

"We certainly haven't seen the kind of technical assurances that we'd need so let's wait and see how this thing develops," he said in response to a question on ABC TV's Q&A program last night.

"I want to see protections in place. I don't want to see our kids exposed to really terrible stuff on the internet. On the other hand I don't want to see the internet destroyed by a filtering system that won't work so I guess for me it's a factual issue.

"Can you have a filtering system that is effective, that doesn't lull parents into a false sense of security and which doesn't in the process make the internet ineffective as the kind of marvellous research tool and educational device that it is?

Link:

My comment:
I've never even considered voting Liberal before. Just typing the words 'voting Liberal' make me do a double take. That said, this will be the only issue I will be voting on. I do not want the Australian Christian Lobby telling me where to surf.

Labor have just lost Tassy... the writing's on the wall.

Nitschke promotes hacking class to beat filter

"The masterclass was prompted by the reported inclusion of Exit International websites (www.peacefulpill.com) on the Government's secret blacklist of banned websites. The Clean Feed policy will see older Australians denied access to current end of life information," the site states.

"To ensure that elderly Australians can continue to receive this important information after the Federal Government's censorship takes effect, the masterclass is intended to provide plain language targeted for Seniors."

Link:

Another article...

Elderly learn to beat euthanasia blacklist

''Now I'm on borrowed time I can afford to live dangerously,'' she said after attending the first in a series of workshops teaching people how to circumvent a proposed law restricting access to some internet sites, expected to include some on euthanasia.

Websites associated with Exit International and its suicide manual, the Peaceful Pill Handbook, are expected to be refused classification and therefore to be inaccessible from Australian computers once a mandatory internet filter is in place.

SMH Link:

This is the best news I've heard. I thought that the filter might increase the computer skills of curious teenagers but it never occurred to me that it might help old people to increase their computer literacy too.

Conroy - Moral crusader!

Conroy out with his anti-porn club protecting everyone from moral perils of the internet.

He is SUPER CONROY!

The History of Modern Pornography

The following paper analyzes the evolution of pornography from 1527 until 2009. It addresses the people, inventions, events and phenomena that have shaped pornography's modern history. This paper has identified four meaningful trends.

Via ASP site:

Stephen Conroy and US at odds on net filter

THE Obama administration has questioned the Rudd government's plan to introduce an internet filter, saying it runs contrary to the US's foreign policy of encouraging an open internet to spread economic growth and global security.
Officials from the State Department have raised the issue with Australian counterparts as the US mounts a diplomatic assault on internet censorship by governments worldwide.

The news is a blow to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, who is defending the plan for internet companies to mandatorily block illegal and abhorrent websites -- for instance, child pornography -- but faces growing opposition.

Link (ASP):

Goldfields teacher on child sex charges

A Goldfields school teacher has been charged with possessing 30,000 images and more than 7000 videos of child pornography.

Police spokesman Greg Lambert said the man was charged with 15 counts of possessing child pornography after a raid on his house in August last year.

Link:

Good old fashioned policing solved this one. Would the filter have helped of hindered?

ASP's Fiona Patten gives a talk about censorship.

Talk recorded by the ABC's Big Ideas
First of five videos.

A few talking points:
. Politicians can see porn, Senator Harradine could show it to politicians but we can't see it cause it will harm us.
. Clive Hamilton (The Australia Institute) drove the need to filter... now he's running for the Greens.
. Wallace represents a small minority of people and want to force their ideas onto everyone.
. 30% of politicians attend prayer meetings but only 8% of Australians attend church - they are over-represented.
. Female ejaculation and small breasts will be RC and therefore banned.
. The Christian Lobby has raised $150k to lobby the government.
. ASP questions the tax status of religious proselytizing.
. Sheila Jeffries and ACL are allies in trying to get the filter in place.
. No Australian politician has lost a seat on an anti-sex platform.
. Australian politicians are frightened of the christian lobbies.
. The name "Australian Sex Party" was deliberate. Don Chip said that getting noticed was the hardest part of starting out.
. Greens have approached them on sex issues for comment.
. Books: "The Family" and "God Under Howard"
. Beasley's father was in the "Moral Rearmament" movement.
. Gamers are anti-filter but their homophobia doesn't allow them to support the ASP. Do they imagine that the major parties are on their side.
. Anti-biker laws could stop the ASP from calling a meeting between shops wanting to discuss selling X-rated videos cause it's against the law.
. Political parties are exempt from anti-discrimination laws so they can discriminate against women and minorities.

Internet's not special, says communications minister

But Mark Newton, an engineer with ISP internode, said: "Censorship will not catch a single pedophile, will not cause a single image to disappear from the internet, will not protect a single child."

Senator Conroy also brushed aside concerns from leading academics and technology companies that the plan to block a blacklist of "refused classification" (RC) websites for all Australians was an attempt to shoe-horn an offline classification model into a vastly different online world.

"Why is the internet special?," he asked, saying the net was "just a communication and distribution platform".

"This argument that the internet is some mysti...

Link:

'Rape simulator' game goes viral amid calls for censorship

Attempts to ban a deplorable "rape simulator" video game have only caused it to spread virally across the internet, leading to calls for sites hosting the game to be blocked by internet censors.

Karen Willis, executive officer of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre, said in a phone interview that the existence of material such as the RapeLay video game, which lets players simulate stalking and raping young girls, made internet filters, such as those proposed by the government, necessary.

Link:

This is a distasteful game. If a friend felt that it was good fun I would question being their friend.

The calls to ban the game have given it massive coverage.

Rape fantasy doesn't particularly turn into rape. Many sexual fantasies are deliberately kept as fantasy. We often don't want to spoil our fantasies by playing them out in the real world. Rape rates are falling in liberal democracies where pornography is freely available.

In the end, it's fun to be indignant and hard work to do the work and prove your case.

Parents Music Resource Center

The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was an American committee formed in 1985 by four women: Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice President Al Gore; Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker; Pam Howar, wife of Washington realtor Raymond Howar; and Sally Nevius, wife of Washington City Council Chairman John Nevius. They were known as the "Washington wives" - a reference to their husbands' connections with the federal government. The Center eventually grew to include 22 participants.

Link - Wikipedia

History doesn't repeat but it often rhymes. Look at the list of songs. Did they really harm you? They didn't harm me.

Government goes to war with Google over net censorship

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has launched a stinging attack on Google and its credibility in response to the search giant's campaign against the government's internet filtering policy.

Link SMH:

I posted a comment (me and nearly 700 other people)
It probably wont get put up.

Conroy's plan to equalize the current censorship of videos and books and the internet has merit. Let's get rid of censorship entirely.

I'm not against classification so that people don't get a nasty fright. The DVD player is such a wonderful baby sitter after all. Classification laws need one more category: Unclassified. Parents know that there could be anything on there so don't give it to the kids.

I'm an adult. If I want to watch adult material - we are talking about just normal sex like hundreds of thousands of Australians are doing right now - what does that have to do with Senator Conroy and his ACMA.

He says that this isn't about banning porn but so much porn is banned. Excellent, sex positive porn like Tony Comstock's films showing positive, conscentual loving sex between loving, sexual partners. That is a definite No-no.

Porn is part of a person's sexuality. According to 'The Porn Report' - based on a long term, peer reviewed study, not a hunch or a religion - 1/3 of people like porn and people either like it or they don't, there is little point in trying to convince people otherwise just like GLBTI people. Conversion doesn't work because our sexuality is hard wired into us. Try converting a straight person to GLBTI, it doesn't work. Politicians have no place interfering with other peoples sexuality.

Senator Conroy announced the filter results to the Australian Christian Lobby before the public. With the Vatican besieged by child abuse allegations I wonder why we allow our actions to be informed by people who claim to have a direct line to god.

Conroy to go on ABC Radio National

Conroy to go on ABC Radio National 6pm tomorrow.

You'll be able to listen online after if you miss it.

The federal government will introduce mandatory internet filtering this year. And after recent abuse appearing on Facebook memorial sites, the government is also looking at establishing an internet ombudsman. So how far should control of the internet go for the sake of making the online world safer for children? Is it actually possible to make the internet safe?

Link:

The comments up already aren't very complimentary. :)

Australia on internet watchlist with Iran, North Korea

A top media rights watchdog has listed Australia along with Iran and North Korea in a report on countries that pose a threat of internet censorship.

Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders on Thursday put Australia and South Korea on its list of countries "under surveillance" in its "Internet Enemies" report.

Australia was listed for the government's plan to block access to websites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse.

SMH:

Reporters Without Borders, Senator Conroy. We aren't talking about a crackpot internet libertarian rabble here. Drop this idea.

Conroy's net gag sparks assassination and bomb plot chatter

Members of the community responsible for recent attacks on government websites are now discussing a violent uprising, trading bomb recipes and calling for the assassination of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

Senator Conroy's appearance on the 7pm Project last night to defend his internet filtering policy has galvanised online miscreants who are planning new attacks.

Link: BNE Times

Can't condone the threat of violence but I'm not surprise. People are upset.

China hits back at Google with the Great Firewall

The ''Great Firewall of China'' appeared intact yesterday despite an announcement from Google that it had stopped censoring its Chinese-language search engine.

The internet giant said on Monday that it had stopped filtering results on Google.cn based in China and was redirecting mainland Chinese users to an uncensored site based in Hong Kong - effectively closing down its mainland site.

Link:

Google's just told China to get stuffed. They have lodged a strong complaint with the Australian Government too. Why is it that only Rudd and Conroy can see that this idea sucks?

Conroy's internet censorship agenda slammed by tech giants

Australia's biggest technology companies, communications academics and many lobby groups have delivered a withering critique of the government's plans to censor the internet.

The government today published most of the 174 submissions it received relating to improving the transparency and accountability measures of its internet filtering policy.

Link:

Conroy was on The 7pm Report. He just denied that experts knew what they were talking about. What can we do about this. We know he's stuffing our internet and he just wont listen.

How to fix Refused Classification online: start again

On the same day that Google stopped censoring search results in China, the Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy published the 174 public submissions it received on the oddly Kafkaesque issue of improving the transparency of creating a secret censorship blacklist. You can see why Minister Conroy couldn't introduce legislation into the autumn session of parliament as planned. The criticism is comprehensive.

The "Submissions on measures to increase accountability and transparency for Refused Classification material" were meant to focus on how the list of RC material to be blocked by the mandatory internet filter is compiled and managed. A discussion paper put forward six options for consideration.

Crikey:

Third-person effect

The third-person effect hypothesis states that a person exposed to a persuasive communication in the mass media sees it as having a greater effect on others than on himself or herself (Davison, 1983). This is known as the perceptual hypothesis, but there is also a behavioral hypothesis predicting that perceiving others as more vulnerable increases support for restrictions on mass media.

The third-person effect hypothesis also argues that people are compelled themselves to take action after being exposed to a persuasive message but this action might not be due to the message itself but to the anticipation of the reaction of others. This action is unpredictable and it might be either in conformity with the message or counter to it.

Link:

This is the patronizing attitude that the government is taking with the Australian public. If ACMA reviews content for classification why haven't they all turned into sex crazed maniacs. They assume that the Australian public is too stupid and fragile to cope with adult material.

They do not offer evidence to support this idea. Show me the proof that people are harmed by x-rated material, even underage people. Evidence people!