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Aussies Hit the Streets Over Gov't Internet Filters
mask.of.sanity writes "Outraged aussies will hold simultaneous protests across Australia in opposition to the government's plans for mandatory ISP internet content filtering. The plan will introduce nation-wide filtered internet using blacklists operated by a government agency, away from public scrutiny. Politicians and ISPs will join protesters in the streets to voice their opposition to the government's plan, which has ploughed ahead, despite intense criticism that the technology will crippled internet speeds and infringe on free speech. Opponents said the most accurate filter chosen by the government will incorrectly block up to 10,000 Web pages out of 1 million."
Once again the guise of stopping child porn and terrorists will be used as cover to do the bidding of big business and lobbyists for the music/movie/software studios who want to block torrent sites. I doubt the U.S. and E.U. will be far behind Australia's lead, sadly.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Opponents said the most accurate filter chosen by the government will incorrectly block up to 10,000 Web pages out of 1 million.
Uh, why didn't they use the metric of 10^4:10^6 or 1:100? Sounds like somebody wanted that statement to be heard as much more impacting than it is. The thing that worries me is that if we look at other technologies designed to "protect the people from themselves," a false positive rate of 1% really isn't that bad--especially on a fully automated system. A high false positive rate is--in my opinion--what's holding back facial recognition but I fear that 1% blockage of websites is completely acceptable to most folks. Maybe a better analogy is that of the FCC in America and the words you can't say on TV ... even though there is no research showing how these words negatively affect people, this small percent of our language and expression is blocked. This analogy (like all) is flawed, however, as you might never know what was on that website that caused the super happy and helpful animated kangaroo to appear on your computer and gently chide you that this site is not for Aussies.
Hopefully (and I'm betting on this) it will turn out to be a lot like prohibition. The outlawing of these sites and data cause their value to skyrocket, the government is made to look a mockery, your average citizen (I've heard talk of simple SSL encryption stopping this) knows how to reach them, in so doing they inadvertently supply criminals with capital and the very stupid law is repealed. Twenty years later, everyone is joking about "the Grand Experiment" and how pathetically futile it was to begin with.
Lastly, how is this any different than what China is doing? I'm surprised nobody has made this connection and accused the government of being no better than anti-free-speech China.
After reading a bit of the plan on Australia's Cyber-Safety, it's evident this quickly degrades into a "think of the children" mentality:
While the internet has created substantial benefits for children, it has also exposed them to a number of dangers, including exposure to illegal and prohibited content. Parents rightly expect the Australian Government to play its part in helping protect children online.
So why isn't there an "opt-out" plan for those Aussie adults who like our interwebs a little dirty (and are over 18 years of age)?
My work here is dung.
It takes some amount of courage to stand up to laws like this. Basically they have to publicly oppose the guise of 'Safety' and 'For The Children'. For politicians and normal people alike it can be difficult to come out sand say you oppose anything that is 'supposed to protect children'.
Good luck to them I say, and lets hope this kills this insane filtering plan.
They will label the protesters pedophile sympathizers. Insinuations will fly. Motives will be questioned. Fingers will be pointed. Dissent will disintegrate.
Newspapers will be sold.
These protesters are only protesting the symptoms and not the root causes of modern censorship. That is why they will fail.
May the Maths Be with you!
"Think of the children! Won't somebody PLEEEEEEASE think of the CHILDREN!" - Helen Lovejoy
While this is a great start, perhaps they can also lift the bans on games? I'm pretty sure that aussies will want to play F.E.A.R. 2 and Silent Hill Homecoming. Okay, maybe not so much Silent Hill, but they'll want to give this one a miss by choice, not by rating board decree or royal edict.
The Great Firewall of OZ, Dorthy will be safe now.
The Goal: A long simple life filled with many complex toys.
"We have buttiduously canvbutted the industry, buttessed what is available and buttembled the finest selection of PFI contractors for this buttignment. The filters will buttociatively clbuttify all communications and filter then, I can butture you, rebuttemble them with surpbutting exacbreastude in any quanbreasty. Consbreastuents can be rebuttured that a mulbreastude of industry compebreastors will butture quality and keep our clbuttrooms safe. EDS Capita Goatse will not embarbutt us."
The first filtering offices will be set up in Arsenal, Penistone and Scunthorpe.
(Inspiration: The Daily WTF.)
http://rocknerd.co.uk
"Holly Doel-Mackaway, adviser with Save the Children, the largest independent children's rights agency in the world, said educating kids and parents was the way to empower young people to be safe internet users.
She said the filter scheme was "fundamentally flawed" because it failed to tackle the problem at the source and would inadvertently block legitimate resources."
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
I'm an Australian, I've recently become concerned about the plans my government is instigating. Just on /. there has been a recent plethora of Australian govt technological announcements that seriously impeach our ability to freely access information.
I will certainly attend one of these protest rally 's providing it's located within 400km of my current location (which I seriously doubt).
And cheers to iinet for attempting to denounce the governments ridiculous plans. No doubt those at the mercy's of company's such as Telstra and Westnet will suffer the full effect of these proletariat injunctions.
- Dane green
I'm curious. What does the Slashdot community think of government run opt-in blacklists and/or whitelists?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Charlie "Brown" Artman is rolling in his grave.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
envisioning wallabees with didgery doos, and koalas with boomerangs marching the street...led proudly by a weathered and slightly under-dressed paul hogan.
Good people go to bed earlier.
However, I don not see anything else Aussies can do. I don't think their constitution is strong enough to carry a challenge against parlementary primacy. Naturally, they can vote the b#ms out, but that happens anyways as a matter of control.
Unfortunately, many "democracies", especially UK-style parlements, functionally are elected dictatorships.
Also known as 1 in 100, or 1%? Granted, 10,0000 sounds a lot better, but it's a bit disingenuous...
"Opponents said the most accurate filter chosen by the government will incorrectly block Web pages."
:-)
The opponents are doing themselves a disservice by analyzing percentages. By doing so it takes the focus from "should we or shouldn't we filter", to "how much should we filter?" Government should never filter Internet access, and the US should put pressure on them however they can, though I concede that is unlikely to happen since so many politicians are too busy trying to figure out ways to convince the proles that the US Government should filter the net to slap the hands of others for doing the same
(admit it; you were in desperate need of a good run-on sentence and I filled it.)
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
"No mandatory ISP internet content filtering!!" "When do we want it?" "Before our copies of Quantum of Solace finish downloading!!"
1 in 100.
will incorrectly block up to 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Web pages out of 1 decillion.
There, fixed that for you.
Sigs are for Terrorists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q25-S7jzgs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mYbYG-nXVA Lawrence Lessig is the man! Internet users should be in control of what software they use and what content they transmit over the internet. The internet has operated openly since its start. Nobody should be able to use their market power, or government power to silence people's voices on such a powerful network as the internet.
The best internet filter that can be used is called a 'parent'. The 'parent' places the child's computer in a high trafic area of the home and monitors what the child is doing. 'Parents' can also come with aditional feature which is called 'intrest' as in the 'parent' takes an active intrest in what the child is doing on line. (Comments accepted, special cases ignored)
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
So Australia, you voted in a Labour government, thinking you were going to get a moderate, left of centre government? A change from the Neo-Liberal (see Thatcher and Reagan) fiscal policies of the right.
But what you got is a bunch of socially right-wing, authoritarian cock-wads, who think the solution to any social problem is making new laws. As a Brit, I have to say this sounds disturbingly familiar.
If it's not Stephane Dion declaring that he's "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime," Australians electing a Tony Blair clone, or the Canadian Prime Minister ripping-off speeches from John Howard; it continues to amaze me how the Commonwealth leaders copy each other.
I'm going to transform myself into a mighty hawk. Either that or I'll just go and work at Dixons, haven't decided yet.
This filtering crap really chaps my ass. I really hate it that the govt thinks they need to know what everyone is doing all the time. I hope they can get those laws repelled. Read Cory Doctorow's Little Brother.. http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/ I don't think we are too far off from this stuff, especially the more the govt wants to stick their hand in our private lives. We can't let this happen!
if they do this in the USA, there will be blood. end of story.
Yes, you are.
This "meme" if you can even call it that, is stale. Learn to read, and keep such mistakes to your self. Nobody cares.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Hold your protests in the voting booth, not in the streets. Then something will really happen.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The indexed web alone contains over 25 billion sites. That means we're talking at over 250million sites blocked! :D
I for one welcome our filtering overlords... there i said it
could be a market for ssh proxies in countries where filtering is not implemented.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
Any widespread filtering of the internet at large will result in a massive tech 'arms war' that will make the cold war look like a Sunday picnic. Splinter cryptoed internets on both the current and eventually new internets will occur. Won't be pretty.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
The first thing I'm going to do when this gets put in place, is buy myself 5-10 VERY fast dedicated servers.
The second thing I am going to do is write a nice, easy to use, one-click-fits-all SSH and proxy client.
The third thing I am going to do is make a pretty website selling this wonderful solution, aimed at paranoid numbskulls (unlike every other proxy service out there).
The forth thing involves a brief walk to the bank, laughing aaaalllll the way.
You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
Whether by the Chinese government, the Aussies, the US, wherever, censoring public communication is the ultimate expression of disrespect for the public, and seriously undermines the validity of the offending government.
...I'm proud to live in London where the wifi is bountiful and the downloads are many
for(b=(a=0)+1;;b+=(a+=b))print(a+"\n"+b+"\n");
Pornography has "no socially redeeming aspect"?
Can you tell me what the "socially redeeming aspect" of reading Slashdot is? And why I should allow you to continue doing so?
"This level of censorship will have zero practical effect on political speech."
On what basis do you make that assertion? And why are you limiting it to only "political" speech? And in what circumstances do limits on free speech (political or not) "often" make sense?
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
big business and lobbyists for the music/movie/software studios who want to block torrent sites.
These issues are also a smoke screen, just like child porn and terrorists. The _real_ problem is free speech, that is what is under threat.
This was all planned. In "Between Two Ages" by Zbigniew Brzezinski he predicted the internet and the rise in free speech. This take down of the free internet is just the next step. Get us all hooked, get the world using it, then transform it into the greatest propaganda tool ever invented.
First they caught us in the "net". Now we are getting moved into the "grid".
We _must_ keep hold of the internet in its present form, this is very important.
and this has happened how much since china built it's firewall?
OpenAustralia.org is your friend.
Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven
Parents have not exercised proper control over their children. Obvious on the face of it.
Government has recognized this lacking and is preparing to step up to the plate, at least in some minimal aspect.
This removes the need for any "parenting" in that specific area. Of course, since "parenting" is an obsolete concept that seems to have gone out of favor with June Cleaver we can expect further government action.
It is an obvious step. The government can't legislate "parenting" so they are going to (ineffectively) step into that role. The people have spoken, by not doing any parenting themselves. I believe we can expect similar action in the US sometime soon. The nanny state expands to fill all voids.
This is in response to an earlier comment ... on the time line. ... OK. So WHAT? These countries have not a bite to their actions. Let's play Soylent Green and scoop em up.
The Aussies, Brits & Canadians have already LOST. They're going to protest this action
In the United States, we're just a hair's tooth away from the same. Check out the War Powers Act AND the Presidential Executive Orders AND the power given to FEMA concerning putting the US Constitution on HOLD without stating WHEN or HOW it would resume (restoring RIGHTS Back to the American Subjects and a restoration of their Citizenship) Please remember the Branch Dividians taught us how a "Cult" is defined by our friends running our government.
I love this country but, neither party has an answer since departing so far away from intents of the Original Constitution.
if/when that does happen, how many people in the U.S. will make an effort such as the Australians to voice their opposition?
"To stop the terrorists."
if they do this in the USA, there will be blood. end of story.
I didn't see any blood over the USA PATRIOT Act, did you?
have you heard of darknets?
Back in the days when I first learned about and used the Internet (no "darpanet") we did not have ISPs. The idea of an ISP is a new thing. In the old days you got an Internet conection beacuse you knew someone else who had one and you rigged a communications line to them. Many times you could not afford to keep that line 24x7 so you connected periodically and when the connection was up you send email and NNTP (news) that had been queued. Most of use had multiple "peer" and we'd connect with some of them hourly, some of them only at night.
There is no reason we can't go back to this kind of setup, it could be done in parallel with the current ISP based setup. All our current software and servers have suport for ultiple intermitent conections. It would be kind of fun (for us geeks at least) to set up As for the links, if it's close, like two houses down the block, you can run 100BaseT wire down the back fence or use wifi with big antenna to go up to 10 miles. Ham radio has world wide reach but at very low speeds. And then there are phone modems.
You'd think by now the moldy old news that blacklists do more harm than good would have percolated up to even these idiots in Aussie government? The allegations of corporate ulterior motives are almost certainly true; they're aware of the consequences and don't care because they have an IP agenda.
No, in fact, I've seen outright approval of the PATRIOT Act. Too many people have the attitude "It doesn't hurt me in an obvious and immediate way and it just might help catch a terrorist, so it's a good thing!" A trivial application of critical thinking shows how it hurts EVERYBODY in subtle and long-term ways. It is one of many popular laws that exists because we base our decisions more on worst-case-scenarios than on rational cost-benefit analysis.
Virtue finds and chooses the mean.
Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
So what you're saying is that THEY are actually Cardassians? child porn is a smokescreen for music torrents which are a smokescreen for free speech.
"a plan within a plan within a plan leading to a trap" seems very in-line with what you're describing. Hmm, this situation is alternatively terrifying and awesome, not sure how I'm supposed to feel as an old trek nerd and current music nerd.
Actually many Chinese get around those restrictions. However, there does seem to be a different psychology at work there, as well. The Chinese accept many restrictions we'd find outrageous.
actually that might be the kind of obstacle that would force an evolution of our networks and communications. i think that people usually respond well to adversity; in this case there are a lot of very intelligent and skilled people that want information that other people have. if barriers are thrown up in the way of the transfer of data they will find ways to use technology to overcome them or create new technology to do it. i kind of like the idea of "splintered cryptoed internets" because they are less easy for any one entity to control.
besides, if the entire network is illegal to be on, can you imagine how good the warez will be?
Kudos to our brethren down under. I believe that this is an issue where people NEED to protest and do whatever is necessary to prevent losing freedom on the internet means really does mean the end of the only real freedom we barely have left in western society; the uncensored net means freedom of comminication and expression, freedom to organize, etc...We know that US (and likely every other country) is recording everything that happens online, under the guide of keeping the world safe and "looking for terrorists" (the trump card of all political excuses, with it's little brother "think of the children.") I am not against common sense true security when it doesn't infringe on our collective rights and the constitution, but this definitely would (in the US) and does not provide true security.
Believe me, there are people in governments and corporations in the UK and US who want the same thing; shit, the UK has turned into a full blown surviellance society (and the US is quite bad).
This is an issue worth fighting over and not giving up for anything.
That's because for all the freedoms taken away/mangled by the patriot act, it's not immediately present in the mind of the average american. Americans just plain don't like to be bothered. Laws like the Patriot Act get passed because it doesn't affect the day-to-day grind. But, take away the ability to surf porn and chat up myspace and people will be pissed. God knows what would happen if some ISP decided to block fantasy football sites here.
Someday we will as well if we don't stop it from happening.
~ I am logged on, therefore I am.
Oz is not the forefront of this "let's block the internet to save our children movement". Unfortunately the do-gooders in Finland have beat you to it, giving us a very sour tasting "Win". However, the implementation is a DNS block, which just ends up as being a "child porn here" list for anyone who knows how to poll a DNS servo and use diff.
Conroy Let's see them put up a filter for that!
A video site called Liveleak, that runs a few dozen new videos daily, ran a video of a russian circus family practicing, which involved an adult holding a child by the limbs and tossing/spinning him about. The aussie gov't is prosecuting an aussie for watching the video. Here's the appeal for support for the accused:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a77_1228162261
Govmint plowing forward despite widespread protest from people and politicians, eh? How's that democracy workin' out for yeh?
Hold your protests in the voting booth, not in the streets. Then something will really happen.
Sure, do your duty of voting once every 5 years, and shun every other form of social and political engagement. Yeah right.
Protesting in the streets is as much a part of democracy as voting is.
It's spelled "interest".
"If it's real, then it gets more interesting the closer you examine it. If it's not real, just the opposite is true." -
Perhaps I'm wrong, but I always understood that the more odious autocratic regimes tended toward presidential systems where the head of state and executive are one person - with the United States being an exception.
Have I misread something?
Things like PGP and Freenet have never been able to really take off because not enough people are motivated to use them. Once people's websites start to get blocked, more people become motivated to go encrypted with their Internet usage.
The more you tighten your grip... the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
Yes you are. It's killing you. You're sitting there, right now, steam coming out of your ears, trying to resist the temptation to argue. You just... can't... resist...
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
I bled a little over this, but it was not repor@#&k((@#)
Authority questions you. Return the favor. -- d474
Didn't have much time to react. The USA PATRIOT Act kept getting voted down in Congress. After 9/11, it was pushed again and made it into law in less than 48 hours.
Those that sought blood after it became law were apprehended, given orange jumpsuits, and placed into tiny rooms.
All i can say is a am glad that this (the protests) are happening maybe people will realize this is going on now
null
Write to your local MP and senators (especially write to those who hold the ballance of power in the senate).
The greens have already said they will oppose this in its current form (Whether they would accept it if it was 100% opt-in and voluntary I dont know)
If we can get enough people to oppose it (especially those on the liberal/national opposition in the senate) Kevin wont be able to pass the law necessary to implement the filtering.
This was all planned. In "Between Two Ages" by Zbigniew Brzezinski he predicted the internet and the rise in free speech. This take down of the free internet is just the next step. Get us all hooked, get the world using it, then transform it into the greatest propaganda tool ever invented.
Or, people like to form networks, bad things can happen on networks, and government likes to regulate bad things. Somehow I don't think the Internet was planned as a propaganda tool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
Not to say that governments won't use it as propaganda, or regulate free speech, but that doesn't mean it was planned that way from the start. Seems kind of foolish to give everybody a free speech platform and then try to take it away after the fact. They would have built in controls from the beginning if that was their intent.
Regardless of how many pages it will wrongly block, or correctly block, it's not going to stop what it's apparently supposed to. This is common knowledge. Those who think it is a good idea will suddenly be miffed when their internet speeds drop by up to 75%, and they pay more than their fair share for these high speed connections. Let's see who will be in an uproar when you can't download your torrent of 'Desperate Housewives'. Let the reasonable people (who don't let any child near their house, let alone their computer) be allowed to opt out of this ridiculous filter, and we can get the already ridiculously slow internet speeds we pay a premium for.
In what way does the Patriot Act limit my access to porno? Blood in the streets.
Now wash your hands.
Neither this article nor the Computerworld article linked mention the date of the protest, which is December 13.
This little bit of information is VERY useful to those of us who live here and who might like to attend. I would venture to suggest that it is the second most important detail.
Full details here
Seriously? You really think there's some master conspiracy to take away free speech using the internet? You think that human beings are coordinated and evil enough to "get us hooked" on the internet, without any concrete evidence slipping into the public eye, without anyone having an attack of moral conscience, and without any precedent for this kind thing?
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
The blocking is a political piece, not designed to win the hearts and minds of the majority of voters (an election fairly recently passed, and the public has a very short memory) but to win the favour and votes of the Family First member of parliament. The Labor government needs the support of the independents in parliament to get majority votes.
It may wind up being used for copyright infringement control, and the possibility and enormity of the available abuses of that nature are one of the biggest problems with the whole thing, but it's not starting out that way.
I'm sorry to tell you this, but that dream, while nice, just isn't true. The government is getting ever more efficient about controlling the populace and defining "center" and "extreme" points of view. (hint: if the leaders don't approve, its extreme.) There will come a time when Americans are brainwashed into forgetting that America was created by bloodthirsty revolutionaries. Americans will start to care more about a government handout than a violation of civil rights. Americans will believe to ever-greater extents that if the Government does it, it must have been a good thing. Dissent will lose popularity and the dissenting will be quietly imprisoned or marginalized. God forbid, it will happen.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
The good news is that Fielding has started causing the government more trouble on education. If he's too unreliable, they may finally stop pandering to him.
It looks like the opposition and Greens won't allow the filtering through the Senate, so Family First looses this one. Fingers crossed.
The _real_ problem is free speech, that is what is under threat.
Really? As far as I was aware, we don't actually have a constitutional right to free speech in Australia anyway. That's why we can outright ban groups like the KKK.
*runs*
It's sad that freedom of speech can be taken from us so easily, the government is going to block anything it considers "Unwanted Content".
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
Exactly,
You won't find a website like slashdot in China.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
It's Kevin Rudd he wishes to turn this country into China.
Having been in China I can tell you it's a shit hole, the last thing we need is to become anything like it.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
Sorry for the car analogy but this seems quite relevant.
A lot of the arguments being thrown around claim that the filters are being implemented to stop people accessing illegal content. Illegal content that if you are caught accessing you can be prosecuted and sent to prison with or without the filters in place.
Driving a car on the road above the speed limit is illegal (which also potentially endangers kids) and to enforce those laws we have police with "fricken lasers" patrolling the roads.
Cars have been around a long time. Why don't we have government mandated speed restriction modules installed. Something that would read speed signs as you drive, and limit your speed accordingly. Of course it would only be 90% accurate, so speeding in school zones would still be possible.
I guess you see my point
Thank you.
Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
Apologies to Lynn Truss.
...Lorenzo / I'm into kinky crustaceans. I just discovered internet praWn.
The Australian constitution only has provisions for free speech in regard to political matters. I presume that is why they were limiting it only to political speech.
Airstrip One is going down, if East Asia has anything to say about it bitch.
The Australian constitution only has provisions for free speech in regard to political matters.
I'm envious. Here in NZ we have freedom of speech in every matter except politics.
Yes, but governments ONLY work for the music/movie/software studios. They're only interested in doing their bidding, and they don't give a fuck about us, the mere mortals.
In reality, something like this should be given to a public referendum. Then we'll see if the Australia public *really* want such a device. My guess is that it'd probably sneak through such a vote, since the average Australia is pretty dumb and constantly falls for bullshit and lies from the government without a 2nd thought.
Dave
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. --Martin Luther King Jr.