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Telstra Starts Implementing Australian Censorship Scheme

Posted by timothy on from the demonization-has-its-downsides dept.

daria42 writes "After four long years of debate about whether Australia will receive a mandatory Internet filter, finally some action has been taken. Yesterday the country's largest ISP, Telstra, started filtering all customers' connections for child pornography. The filter is DNS-based, meaning it's easy to circumvent, but you can't opt out of it — if you sign up to a plan with Telstra, your connection will be filtered for certain web addresses whether you like it or not. "

4 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Opt-out by Fwipp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Even if you could opt out of this, the Australian government would just know who to put on their watch list.

    1. Re:Opt-out by xnpu · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Using OpenDNS or Google DNS messes with content distribution networks. I don't recommend using them.

      There's many reasons to run your own DNS:
      * Improved performance, even if small.
      * Avoid ISP incompetence (plenty ISP's don't honor refresh/expiry times or otherwise deliver a sub-optimal DNS service.)
      * Ability to include alternative TLD's.
      * To apply your own filtering (for everyone in the home).
      * Use DNSSEC if your ISP doesn't.
      * Run your own internal domain (e.g. for development purposes.)
      * Hosting your own DNS and website from your home server.

      etc. I'm sure others could come up with much more.

  2. Child Porn First... by andrew3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Child porn will be blocked first. However, the problem with internet censorship is that other material (such as political material, eg. WikiLeaks) could also be blocked eventually. The first rule of censorship is to not talk about it; it's ironic that we don't know what websites are going to be blocked. Bad stuff has already been done because of the filter anyway. Look at Bulletproof Networks - they were threatened fines of $11,000 per day for linking to a leak of the blacklist.

  3. Re:Use a real DNS server by gavron · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's unusual that you haven't been exposed to that much bullshit or that "DNS", "browser", and "redirects" seem to you be the same thing.

    No worries. DNS is the fundamental name to number translation. Any host on the Internet must not screw with this (I posted the RFCs but I understand you didn't read them).

    Browser is one choice of application type, and not relevant to any discussion.

    Redirect is a function of a browser and even less redirect.

    Have a beautiful day, and look up why "it's" and "its" are not the same word, sweetie.

    DNS should not be messed with. It's a foundation of the network. The host-RFC says so.

    Best regards.

    E