The End of Oz Stoners?

[Nooby]

Oh noes.

 

When the libs were in power they put forth the idea a couple of times of making the internet more family friendly. Fair enough, I don't ant my kids getting hit with unwanted porn or other nasties. These ideas however were always opt-in, that is, that if you were concerned about that kind of thing you have it activated at a user level. This NEW plan involves blanket censorship at the ISP level..whether you want it or not. This includes 2 lists, a child-friendly one and one that also blocks 'illegal' sites including kiddie porn (fair enough) terrorist sites and DRUG SITES. It's bad enough that mj is illegal in the first place, making it illegal to even talk about is making Australia just as bad as *insert your favourite dictatorship here*. Anyway here is a site that is coordinating the campaign to try and get the pollies see reason about this :

 

http://nocleanfeed.com/takeaction.html

 

Please go there and if you're concerned shoot off a couple of letters.

 

Here's some more info regarding the plan.

 

 

"Australians will be unable to opt-out of the government's pending Internet content filtering scheme, and will instead be placed on a watered-down blacklist, experts say.

 

Under the government's $125.8 million Plan for Cyber-Safety, users can switch between two blacklists which block content inappropriate for children, and a separate list which blocks illegal material.

 

Pundits say consumers have been lulled into believing the opt-out proviso would remove content filtering altogether.

 

The government will iron-out policy and implementation of the Internet content filtering software following an upcoming trial of the technology, according to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

 

A spokesman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the filters will be mandatory for all Australians.

 

“Labor’s plan for cyber-safety will require ISPs to offer a clean feed Internet service to all homes, schools and public Internet points accessible by children,” Marshall said.

 

“The upcoming field pilot of ISP filtering technology will look at various aspects of filtering, including effectiveness, ease of circumvention, the impact on internet access speeds and cost.”

 

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) contacted by Computerworld say blanket content filtering will cripple Internet speeds because the technology is not up to scratch.

 

Online libertarians claim the blacklists could be expanded to censor material such as euthanasia, drugs and protest.

 

Internode network engineer Mark Newton said many users falsely believe the opt-out proviso will remove content filtering.

 

“Users can opt-out of the 'additional material' blacklist (referred to in a department press release, which is a list of things unsuitable for children, but there is no opt-out for 'illegal content'”, Newton said.

 

“That is the way the testing was formulated, the way the upcoming live trials will run, and the way the policy is framed; to believe otherwise is to believe that a government department would go to the lengths of declaring that some kind of Internet content is illegal, then allow an opt-out.

 

“Illegal is illegal and if there is infrastructure in place to block it, then it will be required to be blocked — end of story.”

 

Newton said advisers to Minister Conroy have told ISPs that Internet content filtering will be mandatory for all users.

 

The government reported it does not expected to prescribe which filtering technologies ISPs can use, and will only set blacklists of filtered content, supplied by the Australia Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

 

EFA chair Dale Clapperton said in a previous article that Internet content filtering could lead to censorship of drugs, political dissident and other legal freedoms.

 

“Once the public has allowed the system to be established, it is much easier to block other material,” Clapperton said.

 

According to preliminary trials, the best Internet content filters would incorrectly block about 10,000 Web pages from one million. "

 

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1399635276

[Wrangler556]

Well,

 

Thats gonna suck if it actually makes it through...

 

But, im sure if it did actually happen, people/websites would still find a way to get around it.

Edited October 15, 2008 by Wrangler556

[bufo marinus]

I really am disillusioned daily by all this so which demigod beaurcrat gets to draw the line on what is illegal discussion on drugs?

[Nooby]

MJ is illegal, therefore this would be classified as an illegal site?

[brick]

Divide and conquer. This is how fascism works. Make it hard for people to congregate in public or on the net or anyhow or anywhere else and you have them by the balls. We will all end up in catacombs like the Christians did in Rome, when Nero was the current dictator. I know that family first dumb arse senator in the upper house will vote for it. Since when has some lame brain politician been given my permission to think for me.

[Al Fish]

Danoz should be ecstatic. Danoz loves government. Reckons they do a great job.

Kids must be protected from seeing people fucking, but watching them die on the televised News service has always been OK. Has al ot to do with some 2000 years dead Jewish poofta bastard - or something!

[brick]

MJ is illegal, therefore this would be classified as an illegal site?

 

Unless there is a name change and code is used. Fuck I am 58 years old and my life is still being controlled by fuck wits that wouldn't know shit from clay. Time to load up the muskets, sharpen up the swords.

[Al Fish]

"Time to load up the muskets, sharpen up the swords."

Big words for a little boy! But hey, words don't cost anything to type.

[brick]

"Time to load up the muskets, sharpen up the swords."

Big words for a little boy! But hey, words don't cost anything to type.

 

 

I was using them colloquially Al. And how do you know what size I am?

[WantDaChronic]

the blocking will probably be done using ip numbers and word filtering. in all probability all that will result in is website owners changing their address to something totally random on a new host and then using a cheap redirection service so that end users can type in something like www.osa.tk instead of www.dfsfsdf-dfdsfd.com and still access sites like this one

 

provided the new site's ip numbers or their redirection addy's aren't spread out among untrustworthy people nothing could come of it, well theoretically anyway