Friday, April 30, 2010

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.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

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:

Saturday, April 24, 2010

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!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

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.

Monday, April 19, 2010

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?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

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

Thursday, April 8, 2010

"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.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

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.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

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...

Monday, April 5, 2010

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.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Conroy - Moral crusader!


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

He is SUPER CONROY!