Federal Government to Sensor Internet

[CSP]

Just when you think the Labor party has gone to far, or can't **** things up even more, something like this is announced.

I'm sorry, I really don't understand this... This is Australia, a free democracy. Not a Police State or Communist Regime.

I really hope the Ruddites realise what they've got running this once great nation at the moment. A bunch of incompetent, un-educated, naive fools!

From: NEWS.com.au

Australia's compulsory internet filtering 'costly, ineffective'
October 29, 2008 08:40am

THE Federal Government is planning to make internet censorship compulsory for all Australians and could ban controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia.

Australia's level of net censorship will put it in the same league as countries including China, Cuba, Iran and North Korea, and the Government will not let users opt out of the proposed national internet filter when it is introduced.

Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy Minister Stephen Conroy admitted the Federal Government's $44.2 million internet censorship plan would now include two tiers - one level of mandatory filtering for all Australians and an optional level that will provide a "clean feed", censoring adult material.

Despite planning to hold "live trials" before the end of the year, Senator Conroy said it was not known what content the mandatory filter would bar, with euthanasia or pro-anorexia sites on the chopping block.

"We are talking about mandatory blocking, where possible, of illegal material," he told a Senate Estimates Committee.

Previously the net nanny proposal was going to allow Australians who wanted uncensored access to the web the option to contact their internet service provider and be excluded from the service.

Groups including the System Administrators Guild of Australia and Electronic Frontiers Australia have slammed the proposal, saying it would unfairly restrict Australians' access to the web, slow internet speeds and raise the price of internet access.

EFA board member Colin Jacobs said it would have little effect on illegal internet content, including child pornography, as it would not cover peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

"If the Government would actually come out and say we're only targeting child pornography it would be a different debate," he said.

But the Australian Christian Lobby yesterday welcomed the Government's proposals.

Its managing director Jim Wallace said he expected resistance from the industry but the measures were needed.

"The need to prevent access to illegal hard-core material and child pornography must be placed above the industry's desire for unfettered access," Mr Wallace said.

[stocky]

proxy FTW. can see a lot of lost votes when this comes in place. wonder how often it will fail causing normal websites to be blocked by accident causing a lot of anger


oh and its censor

[TVR-190]

wonders how many ISP's will go under cause of this.

We need to get "anonymous" to scare the government from doing this

[CSP]

proxy FTW. can see a lot of lost votes when this comes in place. wonder how often it will fail causing normal websites to be blocked by accident causing a lot of anger

+1 on the proxy option. Not to mention VPN tunneling. But the majority won't know how to do that and it will probably be made illegal to bypass the filter.

Scarier than sites being wrongfully filtered, is the fact that once they have basic policy in place, what's to stop it being added to. For example, what if it becomes something like "only reasonable content will be allowed". Who decides what's reasonable? Then it can get even worse... Someone voices an opinion about the Government or policy and it's censored based on it not being reasonable content. And before you know it, we may as well be living in China or North Korea!!!

oh and its censor

Hahaha! I don't care. I know I'm not the greatest speeler.

My pet hate - it's "they're" not "there" or "their" when abbreviating "they are". I.e. "they're going to get a new car", not "there going to get a new car".

[stocky]

yeah was gonna mention VPNs. also, i read the mandatory blocking also included torrent sites and anything to do with file sharing.

[minux]

There is already a thread on this somewhere.

It is pathetic. This government has ****ed over the country quicker than I expected.

The quicker this group of monkies are voted out the better. I seriously cannot believe people are still supporting Mr Sheen and his group of idiots.

Oh and thanks Mr Rudd, money that we have worked hard to save and invest is now frozen because of your ****ing loose tongue on the fly financial policies. Wankers.

[88GreenVN]

Labor wont do it - the Internet is too big for them to mess with.

With fuel watch and food watch - we all went yeh righto what ever - as if you are going to change anything.

But to stuff up the Internet access for all Aussies - BIG mistake.

I think the Labor party are pooping in their pants with the global financial meltdown and cant hand Government back to the libs quick enough.

So how do they do that? get everone in Australia off side.

Here we have China freeing up their home land and what do the Australian Labor party do start closing it all up

********s.

[azkwazere]

Proxys wont do anything... the filter would have to be placed at a NAP router point at every link out of the country and most likely within each NAP backbone... your proxy would have to be out of the country

VPN Tunneling to what is my question? You'd need to have a server out of the country running a network for you to connect to before it becomes viable and even then just net browsing across a VPN link, to a network across the globe is gonna seriously be slow.

ISPs can stop bit torrent tomorrow if they wanted however its in their best interest not to... traffic for them = money.

The internet wont allow this to happen, im currently unsure of their plans on censorship but im guessing its just a top level meta block which is easy to screw with.

The solution most sites will have will be to run a mirror of all the current servers with no meta content (or fake) and then redirect all requests from Australian hosts to the mirror... but time will reveal each individual work around.

There are too many smart people for the government to **** with.

aZk.

[stocky]

VPN Tunneling to what is my question? You'd need to have a server out of the country running a network for you to connect to before it becomes viable and even then just net browsing across a VPN link, to a network across the globe is gonna seriously be slow.

whats your point? i can VPN to san francisco using a work connection quite easily

[azkwazere]

my point is not everyone has access to a vpn connection out of the country... its a viable solution to the lucky few...

aZk.

[CSP]

whats your point? i can VPN to san francisco using a work connection quite easily

Likewise... I have two to choose from. One in Washington DC and one in Dublin. Neither decreases any performance for me either.

[azkwazere]

Likewise... I have two to choose from. One in Washington DC and one in Dublin. Neither decreases any performance for me either.

Well yes it would... youd be stuck with the routing lag from the VPN across the world...

aZk.

[CSP]

Well yes it would... youd be stuck with the routing lag from the VPN across the world...

Which would only affect anything I accessed in Australia. And even then it's not by much.

Everything else already routes through the USA anyway...

[TVR-190]

there will always be ways to get around, i used to do all this stuff when the D.E.T brought in its web blocker. i enjoy a challenge, and any way to annoy the government.

aZk

[Nevyn]

Looks like Mr Me Too, Rudd the Dudd, wants to be a one term PM. Censoring the internet will be a waste of money because like everything else regarding computers and the net, someone will find a way to bypass whatever they try to block...how long did it take them kids to bypass that filter thing the last government came out with? Not only are our rights been eroded, but also out freedom of choice.

[Zuicider]

damn it i cant access my beastiality porn sites thats it im moving to sheep shaggers land (soz drunk)

[Bax]

Oh and thanks Mr Rudd, money that we have worked hard to save and invest is now frozen because of your ****ing loose tongue on the fly financial policies. Wankers.

Oh Minux can't help yourself can you? Just need to take a deep breath sometimes.

I'm curious to see how much is actually blocked. I doubt much of what I look at on a day to day basis will get blocked, I can only a think of a few websites that are borderline.

When they block it will they just be going on domains or? Would be quite a huge list, but I'm kind of confused, instead of blocking child pornography websites why don't they track down the creators/ disable the website and lock up the owner? Rather then just sweeping it under the rug.

It's definitely old news though, I honestly can't see it happening. If it does there will certainly be alot of angry people.

[Stressball]

instead of blocking child pornography websites why don't they track down the creators/ disable the website and lock up the owner? Rather then just sweeping it under the rug.

Presumably they do for hosts inside australia, but can't do anything from sites outside Australia? At least that would be my guess anyway, if they can't stop the international hosts, instead they will just block them.

[immortality]

impossible i say. but good luck to em anyways. ISP's can't even filter out all the spam yet unless they basically block everything. may as well just shut down the entire telecomunications system there

[azkwazere]

impossible i say. but good luck to em anyways. ISP's can't even filter out all the spam yet unless they basically block everything. may as well just shut down the entire telecomunications system there

Well i recc'n all those crazy internet hypocondriactes(sp?) are all like "see, its the 2012 internet thing where the govenrment makes you buy the net, its totally happeneing!!! omG!!!!"

To be honest with you... why the **** does this ever need to happen? is there seriously need for such a waste of money? Like, have internet related deaths increased due to bad content coming through or what? lol...

this is a major fail...

aZk.

[Cursed CX8]

oh this is crap, between the last 2 governments we have either
- lost our jobs or our working conditions
- our hard earned is worth nothing
- we have to pay more for less
- pay more for thing we already have
- lost half our retirement funs through super + invenstments

and whats worse is now they want to cut out porn!! come on, a man can only take so much!!!

[TVR-190]

we need to become a constitutional monarchy like luxembourg.

[stocky]

Well i recc'n all those crazy internet hypocondriactes(sp?) are all like "see, its the 2012 internet thing where the govenrment makes you buy the net, its totally happeneing!!! omG!!!!"

To be honest with you... why the **** does this ever need to happen? is there seriously need for such a waste of money? Like, have internet related deaths increased due to bad content coming through or what? lol...

this is a major fail...

aZk.

its probably part of their education plan or something, save all the 5 year old kids surfing the internet looking up bad sites when they should be off the computer and out playing in the sun in the first place

[MEANVY]

oh this is crap, between the last 2 governments we have either
- lost our jobs or our working conditions
- our hard earned is worth nothing
- we have to pay more for less
- pay more for thing we already have
- lost half our retirement funs through super + invenstments

and whats worse is now they want to cut out porn!! come on, a man can only take so much!!!

^^^^^^^^ FTW!!

My thery was give each party a 4 year term each, ie i vote for labour then liberal in every election, to spread out the screw ups and reap the benefits from each party every few years, this might have to stop if Big Booty Mummas is to be blocked....

Can't we organise something like on V for Vandetta?

[Cursed CX8]

its probably part of their education plan or something, save all the 5 year old kids surfing the internet looking up bad sites when they should be off the computer and out playing in the sun in the first place

see id rather sit inside, sitting outside in the sun will cause me cancer, and because im outside ill want to smoke, and that will cause cancer, and when i smoke i want to drink, and that ****s my liver and then i become a burden on the health system which costs the government.
Not only that but sitting on the internet is good for the economy, because im spending money on my internet, and ebay, and probably some other **** as well.