Internet Censorship in Oz bashed by dominant Telco - National Mass Media

Internet Censorship in Oz bashed by dominant Telco
by quill Friday, Dec 5 2008, 10:04pm
national / mass media / commentary

Rather than address the critical need to upgrade our antiquated and inadequate broadband network, geniuses in Canberra have actually developed a universally despised CENSORSHIP policy that would further DEGRADE performance! ‘Nice one,’ you mindless morons!

Should we be surprised at communications minister Conroy’s inability to provide definitive descriptions of (imprecise) filtering technologies and the negative impact these extremely ineffective methods would have on the network and Australia? We note Conroy wasted no time adding categories and sites -- unrelated to child porn -- to his 'blacklist;’ we may all wonder who actually gives Conroy his orders!

When quizzed in parliament on these (9000) additional blacklisted sites and what he means by "unwanted content," the minister failed to provide an adequate and definitive answer. Conroy also failed to answer direct questions on the number of participants required to yield statistically credible results (from trials) and whether filtering trials would be subject to independent analysis/evaluation – independent evaluation is absolutely IMPERATIVE, as it is now clear Conroy is doing the bidding of Rupert Murdoch and other Corporate minority interests that view FREEDOM OF SPEECH as a threat to THEIR traditional (media) power base!

Conroy’s evasiveness and confusion indicates he has much to hide; it is now clear he is facilitating the needs of minority interests rather than serving the DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY he was elected to REPRESENT! It should be noted, however, that both major political parties support stifling FREE SPEECH (internet censorship). The thinly disguised attempts to impose draconian censorship policies on the public using the vehicle of child porn has now been completely exposed -- Conroy’s additional and undefined, “unwanted content” category reveals the REAL purpose behind internet censorship.

However, Conroy’s RETROGRESSIVE censorship policy is not altogether surprising, especially in view of an earlier attempt by deputy Prime Minister, Julia ‘Stasi’ Gillard, to allow Corporate bosses and middle managers to spy on the private emails and other digital communications of their employees! Public outrage soon forced the deputy PM to withdraw her Stalinist surveillance policy! Nevertheless, the Australian public was given a taste of draconian things to come.

The nation’s largest Telco, Telstra, recently joined those opposing the government’s plan; Greg Winn, Telstra’s operations manager, stated that government attempts to censor the Internet are futile and drew the analogy of trying to “boil the ocean.” Take it from the experts who know, Conroy, you pathetic little errand boy!

A little research and analysis would have assisted the ill-advised Labor party in refraining from hasty, POLITICALLY SUICIDAL policies. Australians are traditionally voracious readers, having the highest per capita book consumption rate in the world. Aussies love information of all kinds and react swiftly against those that would deprive them of free access to information – be advised you Labor dunderheads!

Australia is known in the region as a location of learning and has traditionally attracted thousands of international students seeking quality university degrees and other qualifications – this ain’t banjo-playing America or Stalinist Russia, Conroy/Gillard/Rudd – wake up!

Regardless of Labor’s final decision, the people would have learned their lesson and would be inclined to withdraw their support from the major parties in favour of Independents that would REPRESENT THE MAJORITY democratic interest. We almost hope that Rudd pursues this ill-planned and advised policy; it would seal his fate as a ‘one term wonder.’

As for Murdoch and his ilk, the times HAVE CHANGED – stand aside or risk ruination or the noose!

We are ONE

Peace.

See:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=682037

The great Aussie firewall is coming apart at the seams, as opposition mounts, and critics have a field day dissecting inept government plans for testing their shiny new filters.

While the government might expect opposition from, well, the opposition, it is possible that the architect of the plan, Labor Senator and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, was not expecting dissent to come from within his own ranks. However, last week’s Conference of New South Wales’ Young Labor passed a motion calling for an opt-in system instead of the mandatory one proposed by the government. Motion 42 read:

"The internet is a free medium for the open communication of ideas and opinions without hindrance, and thus, should not be censored.

"NSW Young Labor supports individual discretion and choice with respect to the internet, rather than censoring the world wide web and its content."

Further embarrassment lurks in the testing plan for the internet filter now being tacked together by the government. According to a response sent to a member of the Australian Whirlpool forum, the test will not actually involve any live customers. The letter explains:

"In consultations with ISPs, concerns have been raised that filtering a blacklist beyond 10,000 URLs may raise network performance issues, depending on the configuration of the filter. The pilot will therefore seek to also test network performance against a test list of 10,000 URLs.

"This will be a closed network test and will not involve actual customers. The list of 10,000 sites will be developed by the technical organisation assisting the Department on the pilot, which has access to lists of this size. As this test is only being performed to test the impact on network performance against a list of this size, and actual customers are not involved, the make-up of the list is not an issue."

In a well-argued piece that our own internet censors over at the Internet Watch Foundation could possibly learn from, Ars author and former ISP techie Iljitsch van Beijnum writes:

"There's no way to build a filter box that can filter all the URLs where porn is hosted throughout the internet. A DNS-based filter that helps naive users avoid being confronted with explicit content would probably work to a certain degree. An IP-based filter for a small amount of very illegal content ... may also work. But anything more ambitious than that is certain to fail; either it won't work very well, or it will bankrupt the ISPs".

Piling on the government’s woes, opposition is now moving off the web and onto the streets. Protests are planned to take place on Saturday December 13 in all States: in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart. Event details can be found on the Stop the Clean Feed website.

© 2008 The Register

The Rudd Government is continuing to encounter ISP resistance to its plans for a trial of Internet filtering technology, with SA-based national operator Internode and Perth's iiNet refusing to have anything to do with it, and Optus saying it will participate only in a strictly limited way.

The Rudd Government is continuing to encounter ISP resistance to its plans for a trial of Internet filtering technology, with SA-based national operator Internode and Perth's iiNet refusing to have anything to do with it, and Optus saying it will participate only in a strictly limited way.

Earlier this week Telstra declined to take part in the trial due to what it called "customer management issues".

Optus yesterday said its participation would be "strictly limited" to filtering an ACMA blacklist, and insisted that the test only be run in a specific geographic area, while customers must be able to opt-out.

"Optus is participating in order to accurately gauge the impact that this type of filtering would have on its network, including download speeds and customer experience," a spokesperson said.

© 2008 Smarthouse Magazine Online

Topics

Other Press

Cleaves on Disc/Stick