Coonan seeks to censor the Web

[freddie]

Coonan seeks to censor the web

Karen Dearne | September 20, 2007

 

THE Federal Police commissioner will have the power to block and ban websites believed to be crime or terrorism related under an internet censorship amendment bill introduced into Parliament today.

 

The bombshell web ban bill was tabled in the Senate at 9:58am, without prior notice.

 

Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan proposes to expand the "black list" of internet addresses (URLs) currently maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to include terrorism and cyber-crime sites.

 

At present, ACMA has the power to act against websites containing pornography or offensive content.

 

Under the proposed amendment, Federal Police will inform ACMA of websites to be blocked, and the agency must then notify the relevant internet service providers. ISPs will be required to "take reasonable steps" to prevent users accessing the website or content.

 

Australian Privacy Foundation chair Roger Clarke expressed disbelief that "the government of any country in the free world could table a Bill of this kind".

 

"Without warning, the Government, through Senator Coonan, is proposing to provide Federal Police with powers to censor the internet," Dr Clarke said.

 

"Even worse, ISPs throughout the country are to be the vehicle for censorship, by being required to block internet content."

 

Greens Senator Kerry Nettle said the Bill would give the Police Commissioner "enormous power over what political content Australians can look at" on the web.

 

"This gives the Commissioner sweeping powers which could potentially be applied to millions of websites," she said. "The Government has dropped the Bill into the Senate on the eve of an election with virtually no explanation."

 

Senator Nettle said environmental organisations such as Greenpeace had been accused of crime or terrorism-related actions. "Will the Police Commissioner call for Greenpeace's website to be shut down?"

 

The requirement to filter or block content would impose another enormous burden on local ISPs at a time when the IT industry faced growing costs related to other national security legislation, she said.

 

Meanwhile, Senator Coonan today extended the Government's $189 million NetAlert - Protecting Australian Families Online program to agencies such as Medicare, Centrelink, Child Support and the Tax Office.

 

Information about internet filtering and the free content filters from NetAlert will be promoted through the agency shopfronts as part of the plan to prevent children accessing inappropriate material online.

 

I hate to be the bearer of more bad news. Could this sit be classed as a crime site?

This government is trying to pass some very Nazi type laws lately. The election can't come soon enough.

 

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...2-15306,00.html

 

from the australian.news.com.au

Edited September 20, 2007 by freddie

[WantDaChronic]

if that bullshit manages to get passed i think this site would definately make it on their block list

 

but having said that i highly doubt they will use a decent system of blocking sites and a simple proxy should fix things up

[jojothepotfiend]

HOLY SHIT, we're turning into china.

 

In 40 years time, kids will be taught that we easily won the Iraq war

 

and fuck, what's with the government wanting to infringe on the Internet lately?

 

[Al B. Fuct]

I for one would like to heartily invite Coonan to 'censor the internet' in any way she so chooses. It'll do nothing but highlight the futility of such an exercise. If a schoolkid can defeat the gubmint porn filter in 30 minutes, we can to it in 1/100 that.

 

I keep a webhosting acct in the USA and can proxy to any website through that, circumventing anything the bozos in Canberra impose. Fuckin' blow me, Coonan, k?

 

and fuck, what's with the government wanting to infringe on the Internet lately?

 

Election season, mon. Nothing else.

[jojothepotfiend]

I for one would like to heartily invite Coonan to 'censor the internet' in any way she so chooses. It'll do nothing but highlight the futility of such an exercise. If a schoolkid can defeat the gubmint porn filter in 30 minutes, we can to it in 1/100 that.

 

I keep a webhosting acct in the USA and can proxy to any website through that, circumventing anything the bozos in Canberra impose. Fuckin' blow me, Coonan, k?

Election season, mon. Nothing else.

 

And you're right about circumventing this stuff....hackers will always be ahead of the government.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Thing is, I'm not a hacker. I don't speak any programming language and I only know rudimentary networking concepts. Coonan's either kidding herself or is profoundly underinformed- and I'm leaning toward the latter.

 

The Chinese govt is a hell of a lot better at censorship than Canberra ever will be- and Chinese surfers get around the 'Great Firewall of China' with no sweat every day of the week.

 

Fuck 'em. Bring on the censors!

[jojothepotfiend]

Thing is, I'm not a hacker. I don't speak any programming language and I only know rudimentary networking concepts. Coonan's either kidding herself or is profoundly underinformed- and I'm leaning toward the latter.

 

The Chinese govt is a hell of a lot better at censorship than Canberra ever will be- and Chinese surfers get around the 'Great Firewall of China' with no sweat every day of the week.

 

Fuck 'em. Bring on the censors!

 

The government under informed???? i don't think that's ever happened

 

[Frazz]

This Bill of Law was tabled on the last day of parliment sessions and was not debated at all, so the Bill is now waiting till parliment re-convenes which will be on the 15th October (next week) unless of course HoWARd calls an election in the meantime ..

make no mistake this Bill will bring OzStoners and all seedbanks into the firing line of Aust. Federal Police who already find that cannabis seed importation related matters are wasting the their time ...

 

and it fucking worries me !!! ... cause no-one is going to oppose the Bill , i mean why would they it would mean being branded as 'soft' on terror ! ...

 

[Luke Skywalker]

Gotta love wars on nouns. All kindsa shit can be done when you have a war on a language.

[grok]

yeah it worries me too Frazzle..

 

..everytime the government seeks to increase their control..and decrease our freedoms..it concerns me.

 

just in case..I am downloading important growing information onto my computer..in case the websites that have the info are no longer accessible in the future...remember Overgrow?..I dont..but a lot of the information on there was lost...I have downloaded all I could find on the net from overgrow that others saved...and the knowledge was of a very high calibre...I need this knowledge..because my growing experience is limited and i need the theoretical knowledge to enable me to get a high level of practical growth skills in a relatively short time...I have also 'downloaded 'several varieties of seeds from overseas too.

 

whether this is neccessary or not i dont know..i am not at all computer savvy..so i thought i'd use the old boy scouts motto. 'be prepared'...it wont hurt to do it now...but would hurt in a few months if i couldnt access OZ Stoners...im using foresight instead of hindsight!!..