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Australian Censorship Bypassed Before Live Trials
newt writes "The Australian Government is planning to conduct live trials of as-yet-unspecified censorship technology. But as every geek already knows, these systems can't possibly work in the presence of VPNs and proxy servers. PC Authority clues the punters in." Maybe the ISPs secretly like encouraging SSH tunneling — and making everyone pay for the extra bandwidth used. Not really; Australia's major ISPs, as mentioned a few days ago, think it's a bad idea.
A wise man once said: "The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."
(And if you don't know who, turn in your Slashdot account by tomorrow morning.)
=Smidge=
I can see a positive possibility here. Find a work-around, and when you're caught visiting "illegal sites", claim that you thought your actions were legal since there's a "foolproof" filtering system that should've properly protected you.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
...Until the Aussie government considers SSH, VPN's, and anonymizing proxies to be "hacking"(illegally circumventing a la DMCA) and takes steps to outlaw them.
Hrm, so 11 years after their Federal powergrab to start banning arms. Not as fast as some regimes, but fitting the pattern pretty well.
Remember what Paul Hogan says, "That's not a knife, this is a knife... that'll get you locked up for two years if you try carrying it in my country."
Australians used to be such bad-asses.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
you thought your actions were legal since there's a "foolproof" filtering system that should've properly protected you.
It's fool-proof, not criminal proof. Since you're reading material that's critical of the Australian government you've proven yourself a criminal.
Please come with us. *click-clack*
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The US voted out the religious right yesterday. Pitty our religious right goverment isn't due for re-election for another couple of years...
It has little to do with being religious or right. The problem is statists, no matter their views on God, Gods, no Gods, or economics.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
1. http://www.google.com.au/
2. 'Australia internet filter bypass'
3. 95% of the population can bypass the filter.
On the other hand SSH tunnels aren't amenable to caching. And no matter what, you're adding another hop.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I'm an Australian myself, and it saddens me to say that you might have a point there. Australia's legendary convict streak has always been counterbalanced by a lurking streak of repressive authoritarianism of a kind which, if permitted to fully express itself, would make the UK's big brother state look tame.
-- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
.Until the Aussie government considers SSH, VPN's, and anonymizing proxies to be "hacking"(illegally circumventing a la DMCA) and takes steps to outlaw them.
While one can never account for the cluelessness and stupidity of so called "conservative" government, tools like SSH and general encryption are foundations of a lot of necessary infrastructure.
If I had "a PC running on a high-speed Internet connection on the other side of the Websense proxy" I suppose it wouldn't be.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
How many businesses rely on VPNs to connect their remote offices? How many sysadmins use SSH to remotely connect to their unix systems? If the government moved to outlaw VPNs and SSH, there is no point having an internet any more. If the government did this there would be a major backlash from the business community. It would be political suicide, if the current plan isn't already.
My internet connection is paid for by my current employer so I can (a) telecommute (VPN) (b) remote administer systems in case of problems (VPN, SSH). Its a home internet plan, so they could not simply limit this block to home internet users.
I repeat my point... if the Aussie government starts blocking every protocol that can be used to bypass their stupid filter, there is no point having an internet. Australia will be back to the stone age.
What American legislation? It seems that France, China, Australia, and the UK are the ones spearheading big-brother Internet censorship.
The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
I was going to say. It's nothing that a diamond head cement drill wouldn't solve. I'm just sorry you went for the easy invisible solution instead.
Nothing says "Fuck you HQ" like a bunch of cat wires dangling randomly from the ceiling.
Great. Now how do I get a remote host? Let me guess, I go to a proxy list that Websense blocks?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Yep, and the DMCA was a bi-partisan effort here in the States. Neither side cares much for digital rights.
The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
Really? You might want to read up on California's newest constitutional amendment.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Not if they block google.
You're probably correct, but only because of local mirroring. Anecdotally, most Australians don't even consider 'Australia' when using the internet, instead they consider it a global resource.
http://www.xkcd.com/354/
They could get around that by only outlawing encryption systems that didn't have a government approved back door. Then the companies could be safe from the hackers while the government kept the population safe from the child porn. It wouldn't be the first country to pass such requirements...
It's becoming painfully obvious you're a highschooler trying to get around some stupid proxy. You don't "go find" hosts outside the firewall. You know what they are. They're your home computer, your home router (if you run ddwrt/tomato), your shell account provider (dreamhost for me). This isn't a proxy list, this isn't a list of proxies. It's a computer with OpenSSH running on it.
Everyone HAS told you how to do it, you're just so anxious about showing your l33t skills of haxoring to the Homecoming queen you aren't listening.
As an Australian who fervently opposes Chairman Rudd's censorship bill...
I'm Australian too and I'm getting increasingly annoyed with Rudd. I find the man to be less than genuine, and it doesn't stop with his pandering to China or fearlessly taking on a dictatorial line. He seems to remind me of that every time he's in the news. Like yesterday saying that Obama had fulfilled Martin Luther King's dream. Tell that to almost all the southern states - they all voted for McCain. I can't even think how I'd be feeling if I were a US secret service officer tasked with protecting the president (or family of one of these guys). How much did their life insurance just go up? That is NOT the dream MLK had. He was speaking about true equality and predjudice being a thing of the past. Way to go hijacking that dream to suck up to the president elect of the US. Idiot.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Hopefully, they will. Google is mainstream enough that killing it will be one of the quickest ways to piss off the public and get this whole plan scrapped. There's an old rule that 'the best way to fight a stupid law is to enforce it to the letter.' This explains why Australia has a tonne of boneheaded laws that are never enforced.
It's not about whether you can read by flashlight under the covers. I realize as a 'murican that the First Amendment freedoms of speech are a "local ordinance" in cyberspace, but Australia is copying China...Communist China. I am of the understanding that a printing press can reproduce odious child porn...so we should register and monitor ALL the presses. Does not this small bit offend, concern or otherwise motivate those "down under" ? I'm not very familiar with Aussie politix, but I would think that in a nominal democracy something this huge would trigger backlash. Censoring the internet in a free country ? Who cares if you can work around....that's SO not the point.
I'm having a hard time if you're for or against it.
At the very least the "illegal material" filter will not block anything or will block too much, and at the same time it will increase costs to our already cost laden service, and decrease competition (as smaller ISPs won't be able to afford it).
This is without even considering the political consequences, who decides what's illegal? Is violence illegal? Is stupidity illegal? Is one mans definition of exploitation illegal?
For instance, Australia bans a lot of games and movies.
Additionally what about it being used to increase its power, Stephen Conroy and his team have already moved to silence critics from ISPs. What if he had a useful tool, say a filter, with which to silence his opponents?
It's a slippery fucking slope, starting with it being impractical and ruining our internet service industry and ending in us being even more at the whim of ficle political agendas.
Which is the point being made by the EFA. As soon as they decide to make themselves the middle man, there will be no security integrity.
Discussing open network initiatives with members of '%' government? Inconceivable!