Slashdot Mirror
Hundreds of Sites Blocked By Canadian ISP
An anonymous reader writes "Last week Slashdot reported on the blockage
of a union website by Telus, a leading Canadian ISP. Since
that story, the company has restored access but the fallout
continues. The move may lead to new
ISP regulations in Canada and a study
by the OpenNet Initiative has found that by blocking the union
site, Telus also blocked an additional 766 websites including a breast
cancer fundraising site." From the article: "While there are a number of different ways to block access to Web
sites, the method Telus chose to block the Voices for Change site --
blocking its IP address -- produced massive collateral filtering.
Filtering by IP address is efficient since ISPs can quickly and
effectively block access to the target site using their existing routing
technology. Many ISPs already block certain IP addresses to combat
spam and viruses. Large networks, like Telus, have mechanisms in
place to block IP addresses almost instantaneously, simply by
updating their routers with a "block list" of addresses.
However, it is common for many different, unrelated Web sites to
share the same IP address."
From TFA: "the blockage occurred at the Internet backbone level, thereby blocking access for other ISPs (and their customers) that use Telus as their provider."
I'm certainly no legal expert, but this seems like it could open the floodgate for litigation. Maybe by the time the regulations arrive the market will have already corrected this problem?
It's not that they blocked these websites really, it's that they went about it the wrong way. There are rules and regulations regarding this sort of thing, and they were not followed.
If they had gotten the permission of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, then you would be correct. Though i suspect that even if they did this the legal way, it would cause bad PR anydangway!
Nasa spent billions making a pen capable of writing in space. The Russians just use a pencil.
Hm, Telus is an NSP not just an ISP. They are a significant part of the backbone in Canada. As an NSP they are subject to different criteria for providing connectivity. Unfortunately, the laws in Canada are somewhat different than the laws elsewhere.
Used to see films set in the future that corporations had replaced governments and thought, it will never happen.
But seeing more and more such news today, it happens to me that, are we in the midst of this change?
In China, the government censors you, in Canada and Australia, the ISP censors you!
So all I need to do the get the post office in trouble is mail something illegal to some random person? In essence the post office and an ISP provide the same kind of service. Both allow 2 individuals to send each other materials. If I send a list of instructions on how to build some kind of explosive device, does it make any difference if I send it by email or by regular mail?
Besides can an ISP check on what you send without violating the law on privacy (the one that makes it illegal to read other peoples mail)?
IMO an ISP can't be held resposible for a email or file transfered. However they can be held responsible if they, after being notified by other people or an authority, don't stop a certain person from continuing sending harmfull mails or don't remove illegal content from their webspace.
Just my 2 cents.
"AOL also uses their web filters to promote a political agenda. For example, children can visit the home page of the Republican National Committee, but not the Democratic National Committee." http://www.computergripes.com/Aol.html
:P I didn't like Earthlinks webmail system or their customer service or their price, but at least they gave me the same level of internet access as I got in the computer labs.
AOL is a good example of this, but I have found censorship to be a big problem with a few other cheap internet providers.
In college, I think I was trying compuserve, but they blocked lots of sites. With them, I could not do political research for my sociology class at home. I would have had to go to the computer lab to do real research. That made me angry, so back then I decided not to switch and to keep my $24 a month Earthlink account
It makes me wonder about people looking for a good deal (poor people) and how this affects their political views.
FOX NEWS INTERNET Explosions, Warnings, and none of those boring educated LIBERALS!
Does Censorship = Profit? For who?
- Your friendly neighborhood systems analyst
Does anyone know of a class action lawsuit against Telus for this act? I am *mighty* pissed that they blocked my access to the site, and I want to make them pay for it: I want to join a lawsuit against them.
Please post a reply to this message if you know of a class-action lawsuit against Telus for IP blocking.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.