Ausie Filtering

[House25]

I was watching a video on Youtube, and something was metioned about a Firewall in Australia.
I went to the link and read.
Aparently, the Australian Government put up a regulator system to block websites.

Phillip Defranco called it "the Biggest Iron Curtain around their Internet".

Now I'm from America, and i have expierienced little, if no Government filtering, other than my own Firewalls.
I'm 100% sure that their are Australian people on this Forum.

So i want to know:
1. If you're from Australia, how do you think this will affect you?
2. If you're not from Australia, whats your opinion on what is happening
3. Do you think this movement will affect any others countries or places, and their internet.



http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/T/TEC_AUSTRALIA_INTERNET_FILTER?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-12-26-11-40-17

This is the URL, if the hyperlink didn't work, justr Copy, Paste.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

They havent put it up yet as far as I am aware. Still in testing phase.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I was watching a video on Youtube, and something was metioned about a Firewall in Australia.
I went to the link and read.
Aparently, the Australian Government put up a regulator system to block websites.

Let's see

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88331-Australia-Looking-To-Filter-BitTorrent
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87288-Australias-Jack-Thompson
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87869-More-Internet-Woes-for-Australia

Had some big coverage on this already.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Thanks root

 

[fluffylandmine]

So I see Austrailia is still being used as a prison.

 

[House25]

Thank you root, but i want your opinion on it, i already read the news stories

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Thank you root, but i want your opinion on it, i already read the news stories

LMAO, you did read who wrote them?

But I get what you mean. I think it's fair to say that the comments in the news stories added up to a big "FU" to those in charge, and a "WTF" to ideas that it would change anything anyway.

 

[Aardvark]

The Opposition, who are pro-business, are against this. The Greens are against this. The business community and the major telcos are all against this. People are taking to the streets in protest of this.

The only reason Conroy is still pushing this is because to give up would be political suicide. If it fails, he will either have to resign or give up his portfolio and retreat to the backbench.

As things look, this will die in the Senate. Thank heavens for small mercies.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

The only reason Conroy is still pushing this is because to give up would be political suicide. If it fails, he will either have to resign or give up his portfolio and retreat to the backbench.

I think we have something similar [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Brown] here in the UK - where highly opposed measures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Brown#42-Day_Detention] are put forward for the sole purpose that backing down could be bad for PR.

 

[Aardvark]

I'm from australia, and I don't care.

The reason we care is because we don't want things to end up like the Great Firewall of China. Right now, they say it's only going to be porn blocked for kids, but they're already talking about other hot button issues being used as political bargaining chips. Once the system is in place, we'll never be rid of it. We'll just have to endure more and more things being added to the block list, until we do reach the point where news criticising the government of Australia are blocked.

That's why we care.

 

[Nurb]

Australia has surpassed germany in becoming a facist nanny-state where anything unpleasant is banned, censored and made illegal; games, books, movies, stories, you name it. Like the guy put in jail over simpsons porn cartoons, or the other guy who uploaded a russian father playing with his kid by swinging him around and it looked like 'abuse', so the Aussie was thrown in jail. Now they want to censor the internet.

Why aren't Australians doing anything? don't they vote? where's the outrage?

 

[Aardvark]

We did vote. We voted the last guy, who instituted most of this culture of fear, out. Change is a fickle beast at best, so we're probably going to vote out the new guy in two years as well.

Why the current government can't see their fast-eroding supporter base is beyond me.

 

[Incompl te]

I'm in Australia and if this is passed my internet experience will be ruined forever. At first it will be small but then every single site will be blocked for some weird reason.

 

[TheBluesader]

I think the bigger question here is how moral arch-conservatives, who openly advocate ruining everyone's fun and represent things that virtually no one agrees with, keep gaining control of first-world democracies.

Not even religious fundamentalists want the Internet blocked. Like everyone else, they do a fantastic amount of stuff there, and if a firewall went up, it would likely block a lot of their anti-progressive ranting. So how do people advocating these ideas keep clawing their way into power?

I know it keeps happening in America simply because the vast majority of voters suffer from a huge religious guilt complex. While they don't live ultra-conservative lifestyles, they feel terrible about it so vote for people who claim they'll enforce it. They think they get spiritual points for it. But it always ends up ruining something they like, and then they fight against it.

And another note - who are these IT people who are always willing to support these kinds of evil censorship devices for money? Aren't they web-heads? Don't they realize it will ruin their fun too?

 

[coffin]

seriously where to government get ideas like this, north korea? its fucked sure theres some crap online but what about the things that make the internet worthwhile? If the parents of young kids have a problem with gettin spammed porn get a damn spam filter and then get something like net nanny to block all the sites.

 

[forever saturday]

well my cousin told me about that, and they usually filter stuff thats illegal, things they think shouldnt be on the internet. it sucks because i actually want to move to australia when i grow up (im american now). in my opinion its a really bad idea, especially because it also apparently has a 10% false positive rate. it could also be used for censorship of political stuff, and for propaganda. they also might start censoring anything they like for no reason other then that they want other people to think like them. i know that the attorney general in australia (or at least the one they had when manhunt was new) likes to have a lot of stuff banned, especially violent video games. this is why yahtzee said manhunt was banned in his video about it. another reason its a bad idea is because people have the right to free speech and we shouldnt take peoples rights away. thats really all i can say right now cuz my train of thought just jumped off the rails.

 

[The Eupho Guy_v1legacy]

Here's what one ISP has to say about the issue: http://ozemail.com.au/customers/iinews/internet-filtering.html

 

[Aardvark]

Two things:

You haven't been keeping up, have you?

This internet filter requires the backing of Family First, who are against all pornography for all Australians, and Nick Xenophon, who is against online gambling. For their support, the government would be required to expand [http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/net-filters-could-block-porn-fetish-sites/2008/10/27/1224955916155.html] their current block list. Peer to peer is also being targetted [http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,24833959-5014239,00.html].

Once the filter is in place, there is little stopping future governments from expanding it.

If you really think that the Government is all smiles, sunshine and good intentions, then you haven't been paying a lot of attention. The internet filter wins the votes of conservatives and bad parents. That's all it is about. If the Government could win votes from outlawing bad videogames, I have no doubt that they'd enact legislation to do just that. They've done it before [http://www.cnet.com.au/games/0,239029232,240060371,00.htm].

Weird pornography and bad videogames may be disagreeable to some, but there is still a demand for them. If the production of said products breaks no laws, then there should be no barriers to their consumption, Governmental or otherwise, for consenting adults. There is already classification in place to protect children by giving their parents/guardians the information they need to protect them. The Government should not need to act beyond this for any reason.

Unfortunately, there are people in the Government, like our conservative catholic minister of Telecommunications, Stephen Conroy, who believe that their morals should be imposed on others. Do you honestly think that future governments will be free of people like this who would see a system of censorship as an easy way to push their own ideological agenda?

 

[Adam Jenson]

So I see Austrailia is still being used as a prison.

When the beaches are this great who gives a flying duck

*relaxes as a bevy of beauties play volley ball on the golden sands in front*

 

[Berethond]

well my cousin told me about that, and they usually filter stuff thats illegal, things they think shouldnt be on the internet. it sucks because i actually want to move to australia when i grow up (im american now). in my opinion its a really bad idea, especially because it also apparently has a 10% false positive rate. it could also be used for censorship of political stuff, and for propaganda. they also might start censoring anything they like for no reason other then that they want other people to think like them. i know that the attorney general in australia (or at least the one they had when manhunt was new) likes to have a lot of stuff banned, especially violent video games. this is why yahtzee said manhunt was banned in his video about it. another reason its a bad idea is because people have the right to free speech and we shouldnt take peoples rights away. thats really all i can say right now cuz my train of thought just jumped off the rails.

The best of the filters will slow almost all internet connections by up to 86%!