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Australia's Censored URL List Remains Hidden
kinsalis writes: "There is an article about the Electronic Frontiers Australia's failed attempt to have access to a list of sites which where deemed worth of censorship under Australian Internet censorship law. While it stands to reason that most of the sites would be child pornography, what is to stop someone slipping in any old url if no one can check the list?"
If they are really only blocking child porn sites, maybe it wouldn't be that great of an idea for Aussies to be talking about getting around it, unless having or viewing the child porn is perfectly ok, if you can find a way to it. Also, if the list is not available, how do they even know a site exists/is blocked to test their methods?
I'm Australian, and I never even knew we were orgranised enough to maintain a list of censored web-sites. Public awareness of this issue is probably very low.
As we all know, censorship is probably in the top three major internet offences.
So, I propose that any country censoring its citizens internet (Australia, Singapore, China, Zimbabwe, listen up) should be denied access to your machines.
You job, as a sysadmin who cares for the internet, is to block these countries from accessing your servers.
When they get tired of being stuck in their own sandbox and choose to fix their broken laws, unblock them. If they decide they don't want to do anything about it, fine, its their bed, let them lie in it.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Why does Slashdot always go psycho about Australia's NON EXISTANT censorship.
/. No one listens, and most of the time they get modded down.
We do NOT, I repeat DO NOT have any internet censorship in Australia.
As you may have noticed, most journalists have no idea what they are talking about with technology, and frequently get it wrong. That problem isn't exclusive to the USA.
The "censorship" in Australia is realy like this:
There is absolutely NO censorship. If you happen to be a "Concerned Parent", your ISP must provide you with software such as Net Nanny...etc if you REQUEST it.
It is completely optional. It is in no way mandatory.
The Australian authorities have a list of kiddie porn sites that they give to the makers of filtering software so that those sites can be included in the list of blocked sites for the Australian editions of their software.
This topic has come up on Slashdot numerous times, and whenever an Australian tries to explain it to the rest of
Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?
It seems that you just want to have a bitch about Australia, without looking into the facts.
I hope this in some way clears up the topic, but seeing as this has come up before, and everyone keeps bitching about the exact same things, I doubt you'll listen.
While it stands to reason that most of the sites would be child pornography, what is to stop someone slipping in any old url if no one can check the list?
Well, maybe they've just worked out where all that lost productivity in the IT sector is going...
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