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A Sad Day For the New Zealand Internet
An anonymous reader writes "Another one bites the dust, as New Zealand's Internet filter stealthily goes live with two smaller ISPs, and three of the largest already rumoured to have signed up to do the same. However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is apparently 'committed to helping people to circumvent government internet filtering,' so perhaps the USA will launch an invasion to free the poor downtrodden Kiwis from their own evil government?" Clever of one of the acquiescing ISPs to have named itself "Watchdog."
Why would an ISP implement a filter voluntarily?
Unless this is a filter designed to reduce bandwidth use (Torrents, P2P) I truly don't understand the logic here.
I did RFTA.
Encryption
Proxies
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
"Like internet censorship too will never last."
Censorship will exist as long as either
1.) There are governments with secrets to hide
2.) ZOMG SAVE TEH CHILDREN
I forsee neither of these going away anytime soon. As in, Ever.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is apparently 'committed to helping people to circumvent government internet filtering,'
You might have got that a bit confuzed: US only circumvents in the case of the Cuba's, Iran's etc of the world - it helps destabilize our enemies. For everyone else like NZ, WE are committed to forcing the world to filter as conditions on our trade treaties. (in this case, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPP FTA) with Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Australia, Peru and Vietnam.
Google can quit!
If you want to know more about it, check the NZ Internet Filtering FAQ at: http://techliberty.org.nz/issues/internet-filtering/filtering-faq/
"so perhaps the USA will launch an invasion to free the poor downtrodden Kiwis from their own evil government?"
That is probably true.
Since there is rumor CNN might have proof that Bin Laden has been seen there for vacation.
People also say he is accompagnied by Sadam Hussein and Joseph Stalin.
Who are said to have found some oil offshore.
The world belongs to those who get up early. - I'm far from being the king of Earth then
Ok, I do have to admit that this is the first time I heard about the filter... but how can they possibly square that with human rights? Especially this part:
I get that various dictatorships and so on around the globe might not care all that much about human rights, but New Zealand was still a democracy last time I checked?
We have two major parties in NZ (Labour and National).
The filter process was started when Labour was in power.
It's now gone live while National is in power.
At least the Greens are against it! Oh, pity they only get ~5%.
"so perhaps the USA will launch an invasion to free the poor downtrodden Kiwis from their own evil government?"
The USA would be more than happy to overthrow your government for you and install a dictator friendly to our interests. We can also free you from your public health care system and bring in a less efficient private system that will only cost you 2X as much. We will though commit to spending billions to rebuild your country after our war of words. And finally the issue at hand. We promise to bring you the same great internet service that we have in the USA. If you haven't experienced dial up before you're in for a treat!
Having recently moved to NZ, I'm still not used to having a 25 gig/month data cap, but at least my ISP (Slingshot) has taken a stance against the filter. We'll see how long that lasts. Having dealt with numerous account issues (overcharges, undercharges, VoIP issues, you name it) in the two months I've had it, I have a pretty dim view of their professionalism. At least I can reach an actual human being in customer service. They're usually quite polite and helpful (I make it a point to be also). Gotta give them kudos for that, at least.
Nooo...
That means there's more chance the proposed filter might come to fruition in Australia. Now the Government can point and say "see, NZ did it!".
Although it's sorta funny ... I was being berated by a kiwi on this very forum a few weeks ago, who was going on about how crap Australia was and that he couldn't wait to go home to NZ where there was "no chance of an internet filter". Joke's on him now, I guess. At least our 'filter' is still only an (unpopular) proposal, rather than actually implemented. Yet.
Perhaps the uncensored internet is the fad coming already to a close?
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
And don't forget us brits too.
To be fair, a lot of our stupidity results from our proximity to Australia. It's like trying not to have the volume too loud when you're living beside the airport.
(It's a friendly rivalry, really)
When confronted with one problem, some think "I'll use recursion". Now they are confronted with one problem.
this has very little to do with the government, they recommend that isp's enable it, but it is not compulsory (as of yet) many of the isp's that are agreeing to implement it are ones generally regarded as companies that like to keep a strong-hold on their customers, many of the other isp's are relatively small ones that still value their image to consumers
That's basically the same ploy that was used here in Finland to get ISPs to censor certain (claimed to be) child porn domains. If the ISPs wouldn't do it "voluntarily", then it was understood that government would step in and make it mandatory. Interestingly, after a couple of years, some ISPs have turned off the censoring by default and allow people to explicitly order the censorship "service". Basically it felt like it was all about making politicians look good at that moment, nobody really cared about if it worked or not.
It is a very important topic taught to us every year at schools, universities and even in the news.
signature is pants
Corruption takes three forms:
This last one is actually most insidious, because the above leave a paper trail and can land you in jail. Being incompetent carries no such penalty, if it did, most judges would be in jail. These kind of measures are not introduced out of malice, but out of a sense "something must be done, this is something, therefor it must be done".
the problem is ultimately the voter. Politicians are like women, once they reach a certain age you should replace them with a new model.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Not that I support Child Pornography but I have seen many filtering systems over the years and NONE of them (including the one proposed for Australia or the one that seems to be being used in New Zealand) are going to stop someone who wants to find Child Pornography.
No filtering system that I have seen even attempts to block the kinds of encrypted p2p networks used by many child pornographers.
The right solution to child porn is to go after the people who are taking these pornographic photographs of kids in the first place and lock them up in a Gulag, Federal Pound Me In The Ass Prison, Jail, Camp or whatever the appropriate correctional institution may be. If you cant do that because its not illegal in the country they happen to reside in, extradite them to a country where it is illegal and pressure the government of the country where its not illegal to make it illegal.
Perhaps try this: http://pirateparty.org.nz/
signature is pants
of why filtering doesn't work.
No, I don't mean just the fact that the simple text string filter is too crude, but mainly the fact that there is no penalties imposed (eg loss of job) on the assholes who implement filtering technology with the same due diligence as an indian first line support call centre, and fuck up the entire internet for whole groups of users, or domain owners.
Scunthorpe is just one example, what is crude, evil or illegal to one person, is totally innocent and innocuous to another person.
Back in the day, no ISP wanted to touch filtering with a bargepole, not even if it cut their upstream bandwidth costs by 50%, for one simple reason... once you filter, you take legal responsibility for EVERYTHING, and open yourself up to lawsuits.
Goodbye "common carrier" and "mere conduit" status.
EU Law states (and I know exactly of what I speak, being personally instrumental in this law being codified and specified within UK Law) that for the purposes of the Electronic Commerce Directive an ISP is a "mere conduit"
As this applies to a UK ISP this ruling SPECIFICALLY EXEMPTS the "mere conduit" from all civil, and criminal, liabilities, even if the material in question is defamatory, copyright violation, or even child pornography... PROVIDED THEY REMAIN A "MERE CONDUIT"
The nanosecond you start filtering, you are no longer a mere conduit or common carrier.
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
There is no such thing as a "threat of coercion". Threats are coercion.
Nothing lasts forever but the certainty of change.