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Australia To Block BitTorrent
Kevin 7Kbps writes "Censorship Minister Stephen Conroy announced today that the Australian Internet Filters will be extended to block peer-to-peer traffic, saying, 'Technology that filters peer-to-peer and BitTorrent traffic does exist and it is anticipated that the effectiveness of this will be tested in the live pilot trial.' This dashes hopes that Conroy's Labor party had realised filtering could be politically costly at the next election and were about to back down. The filters were supposed to begin live trials on Christmas Eve, but two ISPs who volunteered have still not been contacted by Conroy's office, who advised, 'The department is still evaluating applications that were put forward for participation in that pilot.' Three days hardly seems enough time to reconfigure a national network."
This does not fair well for all the World of Warcraft players in Australia. Blizzard "legally" uses p2p to distribute patches and such. I guess only one question remains to be asked to all Australian WoW players...Can I have your stuff? Sorry, it had to be said.
> Censorship Minister Stephen Conroy announced
What is a "Censorship Minister"? Is there a "Ministry of Censorship" in Australia??
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
I think the sooner an 'important' state does this sort of thing the better.
The current situation is a chaotic cat and mouse game that's gradually playing into the hands of the publishing industry.
If a big state blocks and censors parts of the internet, they can probably make it stick. The result might be an incentive for people to start encrypting data by default, and I kind of think that would be a good thing for the whole world.
Here in the UK the government is up to all sorts of tricks - the RIP Act gives them the power to monitor all internet traffic and store it for up to 2 years. Even your local council can request to see which web sites you've been visiting - no need to involve the police or the courts, just a 'senior official'.
I think there's just not been a good enough reason so far to encrypt more than the bear minimum. This sort of thing might shove things in the right direction...
The idea of blocking P2P traffic is flawed in a lot of ways. What defines P2P traffic? TCP protocol IS a P2P-based protocol. Obviously they want to stop the illegal traffic going on but this is not the way and like any type of crime you can't stop it from happening at all. Furthermore, banning the in essence legal means to perform a crime implies that they also intend on banning cars because they can be used to kill people, computers as they can be used to intrude one's privacy and many more examples. The Australian government seems nothing more than a group of hypocrits. Yet again only the honest people will be punished by this because people will always find a way to get what they want. Either through paying for payed hosting services (like Rapidshare), by setting up a proxy or in other ways that will unquestionably discovered soon enough if they choose to push their plans.
So what happens if you "accidentally" look at child porn? Can you sue the government for failing to protect you from illegal material? Since you're no longer given to choice to look at the stuff but are blocked automatically, if you happen upon a website where it's hosted I would imagine you can hold them liable for accidentally clicking on something illegal.
"OH DEAR GOD! It's child porn! I'm suing the Australian government for failing to protect me as they said they would!"
First they came for the child pornography on the internet ... and I did not speak up ... and I did not speak up ... and I did not speak up ... and I did not speak up ... and I did not speak up ... and there is no one left to speak up for me
Then they came for the organized crime on the internet
Then they came to 'protect the children' against 'vulgar images'
Then they came for the illegal warez
Then they came for my bittorrent
Then they came for me
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Subj: Please do not block all peer-to-peer traffic
For one thing, World of Warcraft (a passion for our entire family) depends on P2P for the distribution of updates.
And where I have absolutely no problem with suppressing child pornography, I believe that in the long term censorship by filtration is not the answer. It's never the answer, in a free society -- no offence, mate, but you're the government and I don't entirely trust you. Once you start filtering content for good reasons, you'll soon be filtering content for bad ones. The answer is to find the perpetrators and take them out. I believe your efforts should be directed toward finding the source of the trash and taking it down, not slowing down the pipes for the rest of us. (name + address) IT consultant since 1969 Husband and devoted father of two
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
That's called "tyranny". If I want to spend my election day sitting in my recliner, drinking beer, and watching the Buffy marathon, that's my choice. Who the hell if the government to dictate I MUST be at a certain place at a certain time?!?!? Fuck 'em. Normally I vote but if such a ridiculous law passed in my state, I would stay home. It would be my way of protesting that it's my body, my mind, and my liberty. Nobody owns me. I'm not a slave.
No, its not tyranny. Its your fucking responsibility as a citizen. Have you got such a warped sense of perspective that you think mandatory voting is anywhere near akin to tyranny! Deal with it - personally I would be for people losing citizenship if they fail to vote.
Tho +1 for mentioning Buffy!
Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly