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smartboyathome
December 14th, 2008, 08:12 PM
Remember Australia's web filter, everyone? Its going to be tested soon. :(


SYDNEY, Australia — The Australian government plans to test a nationwide Web filter that would require Internet service providers to block access to thousands of sites containing illegal content, officials say.

The proposed filter is part of an $82 million cybersafety plan begun in May with the goals of protecting children and stopping adults from downloading content that is illegal to possess in Australia, like child pornography or terrorist materials.

But the plan has prompted opposition from online advocacy groups and industry experts who say it would slow browsing speeds and do little to block undesirable content.

In November, the minister of communications, Stephen Conroy, invited Internet service providers and mobile phone operators to participate in a live trial of the program, which is set to begin this month. The department of communications will use the results to decide how to proceed with the plan.

The proposed system consists of two tiers. Under the first, all Australian service providers would be required to block access to about 10,000 Web sites on a list maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the federal monitor that oversees film classifications.

The second tier would require service providers to offer an optional filter that individuals could apply to block material deemed unsuitable for children.

The government says the list, which is not available to the public, includes only illegal content, mostly child pornography. But technology, left-wing and other advocacy groups, and technology businesses worry that the filter could be used to block sites focused on what some consider controversial topics, like gambling or euthanasia. “Even if the scheme is introduced with the best of intentions, there will be enormous political pressure on the government to expand the list,” said Colin Jacobs, the vice chairman of Electronic Frontiers Australia, a technology advocacy organization. “We worry that the scope of the list would expand at a very rapid rate.”

The proposal has set off a flurry of anxious chatter on social networking sites like Facebook, where thousands of users said they planned to take part in protests this weekend.

More than 85,000 users have also signed an online petition created by GetUp!, an advocacy group that calls the mandatory filter “a serious threat to our democratic values.”

Mark White, the chief operating officer at iiNet, one of the largest Australian Internet service providers, said the filter would have a limited effect because it would not monitor illegal activity on peer-to-peer or file-sharing networks, where most child pornography and other illicit content is exchanged. The filter would also slow Internet browsing speeds for all, regardless of whether they were trying to view forbidden sites, he said. IiNet has agreed to take part in the trial.

This concern has been supported by the government’s own research. A July report by the communications authority found that lab tests of six unidentified Internet filtering programs showed mixed results. The best filter slowed browsing speeds by 2 percent; the other five made them 22 percent to 87 percent slower.

The study found that filtering programs were effective at blocking prohibited material around 92 percent of the time, but that about 3 percent of legitimate sites were mistakenly caught in the filters.

The country’s largest service provider, Telstra, has also expressed doubts about the plan. Its chief operating officer, Greg Winn, said recently week that using filters for service providers to stop prohibited content was “like trying to boil the ocean.” As soon as the filter was applied, he said, someone would find a way to break it.

Some who support the idea of banning some sites, like Clive Hamilton, a senior ethics professor at the Australian National University, said that kind of reasoning was flawed, though.

“The laws that mandate upper speed limits do not stop people from speeding,” he said. “Does that mean that we should not have those laws?”

Meanwhile, Mr. Conroy, the communications minister, said he and the government were open to comments from Internet industry groups and the public.

In an e-mail message, Mr. Conroy said the government was taking note of the industry’s concerns about the technical limitations of the proposed filter. He added that the trial would provide “an invaluable opportunity for I.S.P.’s to inform the government’s approach.”

MikeTheC
December 14th, 2008, 08:32 PM
And in other news, normal non-savvy people will bear the cost of having less freedom from Day 0; hackers will get around the limitation from probably Day 1; crackers will find ways to exploit the system from Day 2; and finally, on day X, the Australian Government will finally wake up to the reality of it being a bad idea and quit funding it.

handy
December 15th, 2008, 03:44 AM
I signed the petition, sent letters to my State & Federal members of parliament & to Minister Conroy.

I hope I'm wrong, but I see this as a major move (locally) in the ongoing implementation of Internet2 (the one where it becomes all about money & control) where big corporations who are loosing business to the internet have made the internet their business.

MikeTheC
December 15th, 2008, 03:47 AM
I signed the petition, sent letters to my State & Federal members of parliament & to Minister Conroy.

I hope I'm wrong, but I see this as a major move (locally) in the ongoing implementation of Internet2 (the one where it becomes all about money & control) where big corporations who are loosing business to the internet have made the internet their business.

This has been said better than I can (well, ok, more succinctly than I can):


The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

magmon
December 15th, 2008, 04:28 AM
I love the examples they give. "Child porn and terrorist material" Dont they just think so highly of their people?

MikeTheC
December 15th, 2008, 04:37 AM
What I want to know is, what is it precisely that stops Australians from simply using external-to-Australia proxy servers and then getting whatever they want? Hmm???

magmon
December 15th, 2008, 04:44 AM
What I want to know is, what is it precisely that stops Australians from simply using external-to-Australia proxy servers and then getting whatever they want? Hmm???

Lol, hey! We've already got a workaround! xD

zmjjmz
December 15th, 2008, 04:45 AM
What I want to know is, what is it precisely that stops Australians from simply using external-to-Australia proxy servers and then getting whatever they want? Hmm???

The people who make these decisions are not competent. The major players who have protested it are competent.
Unfortunately the workers who are setting up the system know that it will not work, whereas the people employing them think it will.

hackers will get around the limitation from probably Day 1
Day 1? I think you mean hour 1.

MikeTheC
December 15th, 2008, 04:50 AM
The people who make these decisions are not competent. The major players who have protested it are competent.
Unfortunately the workers who are setting up the system know that it will not work, whereas the people employing them think it will.

Day 1? I think you mean hour 1.

True.

Still, all-in-all, it's nice to know my government isn't the only incompetent one on the planet. I was beginning to wonder... </sarcasm>

tgalati4
December 15th, 2008, 04:52 AM
Gives penal coloney a new meaning.

zmjjmz
December 15th, 2008, 04:53 AM
I believe iiNet said they were only going to test it to show what a complete piece of crap it is.

Dr. C
December 15th, 2008, 05:09 AM
I believe iiNet said they were only going to test it to show what a complete piece of crap it is.

Why re-invent the wheel? Can't the Australian Government simply license the censorship technology from China or Saudi Arabia? With the current drop in oil prices the Saudis may give Australia a good deal on the censorship technology.

Paqman
December 15th, 2008, 05:59 AM
I believe iiNet said they were only going to test it to show what a complete piece of crap it is.

And at least one of the other big ISPs said they weren't going to be part of the testing at all. Sounds like the government's plans might be starting to fall apart.

magmon
December 15th, 2008, 06:03 AM
Hmm, Im gonna have to see if I can access one of these proxyish things when they come out. Just got a brilliant, possibly illegal idea involving WPE

handy
December 15th, 2008, 07:03 AM
And at least one of the other big ISPs said they weren't going to be part of the testing at all. Sounds like the government's plans might be starting to fall apart.

Internode, the most highly regarded (by users) ISP in this country, has very vocally made their opposition known, to the point where Conolly has had to defend himself (by attacking them of course).

I don't believe that this system has anything to do with the welfare of the population, it is just a small part of a huge world wide plan to change the internet as we know it.

It will be interesting to see what other changes have happened around the globe in the next 5 year period? In the 5 years after that, I expect the internet to be unrecognisable in comparison to what it is today.

It will be a closed up corporate dominated commodity, where internet freedom as we know it will be a subculture using whatever tricks it has to to survive in a very much limited domain compared to what we have now.

I hope I'm wrong, but hugely wealthy & powerful opposition is not something to take lightly.

MikeTheC
December 15th, 2008, 07:43 AM
@handy:

If ultimately your worst fears are realized, I think there will be a lot of people who will walk away from it, especially in the hacker community, because if it gets changed to the point where it's strictly a commercial conduit and nothing more, it won't be a matter of "Can it be hacked?" but "Once I hack the system, where is there available for me to go with it?"

We will see. Maybe it'll be time for me to go in a new direction.

handy
December 15th, 2008, 08:58 AM
We will see. Maybe it'll be time for me to go in a new direction.

You won't be on your own.