Australia's Internet Filter Switches On In July

[Fayathon]

*snip*

I'm not defending the right to see child abuse online. If the act is illegal then the site that hosts it and the people behind it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The fact is that if a law gets put into place allowing the government to censor anything then they will slowly add to that power.

I do understand that this is being done by private entities, but I do not believe that it is an ISPs job to do anything beyond provide access to the internet.

I understand the want to remove unwanted filth from the internet, but it's not going to happen simply due to the nature of how the internet operates. I mean, hell, even if you take the internet down completely then we're just going to see shadownets pop up with people posting whatever the hell they want with no real way to stop them. I say use the internet to track down people doing illegal shit and throw the book at them, but censoring it will simply put people who have no interest in doing illicit things online in a lurch. Criminals have their methods of bypassing governmental restrictions already (I mean hell I posted one of the most popular ways in this thread). I feel that the fight against filth online is pretty well the same loosing battle that developers have against DRM, the tighter things get locked down the more inventive criminals become. With that in mind, why not destroy censorship online completely and cast the net wide, with the blacklists non-existent catching careless idiots would be cake.

 

[marurder]

Bad, very very bad...

 

[TheDude7053]

all i have to say is The Onion Router

 

[Biosophilogical]

Mexican drug cartels have soldiers, should we just listen to them because we have a couple guns then?

Also, pornography is legal, what someone does with their own body is none of your business.

Edit: I know of course that the government has nothing to do with this filter.

Of course they should. They're powerful than we are. That's the way of things.

The people should never fear their goverment, the government should fear the people.

I believe you are just actively trying to incite a negative response to your strawman actions. If not, I fear that there are more like you and that makes me fear for humanity.

I hate it when people act entitled and think that they're more important than the government.

No, the people have every right to fear the Government. Guess who has the military? Guess who has the nuclear bombs? Guess who funds the police force? All the government. That's more than the people will ever have. And people have good reason to fear that.

I have to ask ... are you insane? I don't mean that in the "I'm dismissing your argument through ad hominem", I mean it figuratively, like "Do you have some hatred of freedom", or "Do you lack empathy". You know, crazy, but not crazy-crazy.

Honestly though, if you think that having the power to do something means you should be able to do something, then I hope for the sake of everyone with some form of moral compass that extends beyond their own selfish desires that you never attain any form of real power over another person. Because if that's what you think, then you are a threat to everyone around you, and I do mean that literally.

OT: Filter the internet? I highly doubt that this will accomplish anything productive. If someone is determined to watch kiddy-porn, then they'll find a way. The best thing to do is to track down the creators of the sites and throw them into a deep, dark hole away from any children or internet access.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

In defence of that guy, too many people seem to think that just really wanting freedom will be enough to defeat a far greater opressive enemy. America was a success story for freedom fighters, but it is fairly exceptional (and largely down to having the right allies - other big oppressive regimes like France and Spain). Most attempts at revolution can be easily quashed just so long as the opressing force is ruthless and competant enough to prevent uprisings early on. Seems to me that if a drug cartel had my family at gunpoint, it wouldn't matter how inpassioned I was about beating the gun men, they would still kill me and my family in an instant if I was stupid enough to resist them openly. That is the problem for many people in opressive societies. It is the reason why many strong people will still resign themselves to a life of servitude. It is easy to talk about being brave and fighting for freedom when a gangster isn't pointing a gun at you and your family.

Coincidentally I am pondering this issue these days. Still, if everyone resisted then I do not think that the guys bearing the guns would shoot EVERYONE. Still, it is true that our system is fucked up and no one tries to change that. The more I start to grasp that, the more I am filled with despair.

 

[mysecondlife]

believe it or not, similar things are going on in the U.S.

http://act.demandprogress.org/act/three_strikes/%3Freferring_akid%3Da1628175.127234.8yTOeR%26source%3Dauto-e

If you're in U.S. and disagrees with internet censorship, please sign the cause.

What the fucking fuck is this fucking shit? Are you absolutely sure this is happening? Are they doing this now? If you can corroborate the existence of this policy with another source then I'm getting my family out of Comcast as soon as possible.

I'm an internet DJ and as such I often need to download many new advertisements to play on my show. I often experience temporary slowdowns which can throw me off of my stream near the time in which I download such files. Granted the problem has been largely alleviated by my actions to optimize my internet over my router system, so I'm unsure if this is the issue.

More on Topic: Isn't it ironic that a country founded by criminals would evolve into this restrictive near-fascist state?

Right now, it's only a leaked information from entertainment industry, so there is no definite proof However, the demandprogress are taking an early action by alerting people to signing the petition.

I strongly urge you to sign the petition and tell everyone about it. What they do is collect petitions and send to senators. We dodged a lot of bullets with RIAA and MPAA and others trying to put censorships to the internet.

 

[Madara XIII]

Is it really so hard to grasp the idea that government officials have restraint?

Yes.

When did people get so damn cynical about politics? I know it?s hard to understand but sometimes the government does know what it?s doing, sometimes they do have the peoples best interests at heart.

Bullshit. That's the biggest Lie I've heard since Scientology! The government RARELY has the people's best interest at heart. They'll toss their constituents a bone every now and then and do the bare minimum to make sure they stay in office. You honestly act like politics are some of the most saintly people. I know how the goddamn process works and I know damn well that government officials always have THEIR personal interests at heart or finding ways to improve the country to THEIR liking. That's how the US government works. I actually know politics.

Secondly the best thing to do is take action against the active sites and find ways to take them down that promote such illegal smut such as child porn, etc, etc..

 

[StBishop]

Telstra and Optus, the two largest internet providers in Australia, along with two other small outfits,

Your source is incorrect.

iinet is Australia's second largest Internet provider.

I was like FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU- because I'm with iinet. Then I was Optus and laughed.

EDIT: Umm, After reading past that part of the sentence that looks incredibly bad. I am really only against freedoms, not blocking child abuse specifically. I think that really it's only good to block child abuse sites, but I'm concerned that it's a slippery slope until we devolve into a nanny state.

 

[PUR3_GAM3R33]

Hey lulzsec, I got one last job for you.

^this

Well i can see the next annon target.

^and this

TBH,I really don't see this ending well even if Annon and Lulzsec step in or not =/

 

[Madara XIII]

[This responce has been censored by the ACMA]

LMAO That comment was so [AMCA]-ing funny.

DAMN YOU AMCA!! DAMN YOU ALL TO-

[The user of this account was kidnapped and placed in an Australian prison by the AMCA]

you have been warned.

 

[Madara XIII]

Mexican drug cartels have soldiers, should we just listen to them because we have a couple guns then?

Also, pornography is legal, what someone does with their own body is none of your business.

Edit: I know of course that the government has nothing to do with this filter.

Of course they should. They're powerful than we are. That's the way of things.

The people should never fear their goverment, the government should fear the people.

I believe you are just actively trying to incite a negative response to your strawman actions. If not, I fear that there are more like you and that makes me fear for humanity.

I hate it when people act entitled and think that they're more important than the government.

No, the people have every right to fear the Government. Guess who has the military? Guess who has the nuclear bombs? Guess who funds the police force? All the government. That's more than the people will ever have. And people have good reason to fear that.

Referring to the incident in Egypt; the government has a good reason to fear its inability to govern its people. Honestly what government would kill off all of it's people like you're implying? A government cannot stand without its people despite what you may say.

In short, the government does have something to fear. History has shown it and when the people get fed up and riled up enough then 9 times out of 10 that government either falls or steps down.

You honestly have the mindset of a totalitarian dictator who's disillusioned enough to believe the people below him are keeping the population's best interests at heart.

 

[Madara XIII]

Is it really so hard to grasp the idea that government officials have restraint?

Yes.

When did people get so damn cynical about politics?

Dunno. There was the time the HTML of the subpages of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_scandal topped one megabyte total.

Some time before that, there was these guys. George Washington, Ben Franklin, and a bunch of others. They were so cynical about politics and the risks of corrupt leaders they built a system with a substantial number of checks and balances in it.

Then there was this guy, Dante Alighieri, who wrote about how political power had corrupted the Catholic Church. But you can't trust him - they'd used that political power to make him a homeless exile, so he was biased.

A while before that, Roman Senator Gaius Cornelius Tacitus said "In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous."

I know it?s hard to understand but sometimes the government does know what it?s doing, sometimes they do have the peoples best interests at heart.

And sometimes they don't. Many of us feel that they don't in this case, particularly when the ACMA blacklist [http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/296161/australia_web_blacklist_leaked/] was leaked and we found that the powers that be lied about the scope and length of the blacklist.

There are laws against child pornography. Why must they ban something already illegal? They already have the laws to stop it, why do they need more?

Why am I hearing reports that some Liberal politicians think Labor is too light on this issue and need to ban things like gambling and abortion sites? (Could someone confirm that for me? I'm not in Australia.)

The amount of political power in the world is finite. The more they take, the less you have. Any time an organization grabs more power for itself, its motivations need to be scrutinized carefully.

I fell in love with your statement.... I truly did!!

 

[Madara XIII]

I don't even know why they try.

I suppose it has something to do with protecting Australian society, in particular youths, from the horrors of the internet. To that I respond: "You lost yeeeaaars ago if that's your plan.".

LMAO The horrors of the internet can never be beaten. That's an ever precedent fact

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Hey lulzsec, I got one last job for you.

^this

Well i can see the next annon target.

^and this

TBH,I really don't see this ending well even if Annon and Lulzsec step in or not =/

It will be a whole lot more entertaining if they do though.

 

[Timmibal]

Looks like Telstra isn't as committed to the filter as they said they were. [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/hackers-put-telstra-in-filter-bind/story-e6frgakx-1226081618113]

Fucking LOLed hard.

I can see the CEO of Telstra coming in after a week off, grabbing a member of the board of directors by the lapels with one hand and gesticulating wildly at the member eating paste down the other end of the table and demanding "Which of you fuckers gave HIM the rubber stamp?!"

Seriously, can anyone else see a downfall parody on this in the next week?

Even if Telstra backs off this. I still think we should encourage emigration to the non-participating ISPs anyway. Telstra's been notorious for fucking it's customers for YEARS now, and Optus is... Just terrible.

One thing which concerns me though, since Optus and Telstra ARE big dogs in the yard, and Telstra still owns a good portion of network infrastructure, will this filter have any involuntary effect on other ISPs? I'm afraid my network-fu does not stretch to that level of complexity.

 

[SillyBear]

Comparing Australia to China? Please. They are censoring a few child pornography sites to prevent people from stumbling upon them. They aren't going to start censoring whatever the fuck they want, and they aren't going to turn into crazy dictators. All of you are using the slippery slope argument.

You cannot accidentally stumble upon a site with child pornography.

Yes, yes you can. My Father is a UK Police Officer who was worked in child crimes for over 25 years and over sees internet operations every few weeks. I know for a fact you can and many do. Most of it is unknowingly child porn.

Anyway, the rest of your post was just nasty and snidey so I'll just leave that out.

No. Just no.

*faceplam*

People who make child pornography don't go around making it easy to "stumble upon". One doesn't just Google "best ski resorts" and find a kiddy porn ring. In fact, the makers have many legal reasons (being devoid of empathy, the creatures they are) to make it very, very, very hard to find. You think these people make their crap easy to find? That they just set up a forum and start trading? Lol. You better tell all those computer technicians working with the police they aren't needed -- any Joe Blow can just use Google to find it. XD

Go ahead. Google something. I bet you $5000 you will not "stumble upon" anything akin to that. Try it.

5-15% of the content on some internet porn sites depict minors you nong. The police work with that. When I say child porn I'm not talking obscene paedophilia, I'm talking about 13-15 year old girls who most people don't even know are minors. If you bothered to do research on the issue, you'd know the Australian government are especially concerned with it. They're also concerned with people over the age of 18 who are deliberately made to look like minors. As I said earlier, my Father has made hundreds of arrests over it. And yes, you can quite easily stumble upon this.

I'll take your 5 grand now then?

You see the word child pornography and you automatically think I'm talking about under 10. I'm not. The huge majority of child porn is done with post-pubescent girls.

 

[Madara XIII]

You know what, fuck this censorship thing. I'm not even Australian and this pisses me off.

We share the same feelings...

Honestly Australia, you guys need to start stepping up to this shit. I'm pissed at the US for the censorship laws they have, and this is far worse.

Indeed. U.S. Censorship laws here may be a *****, but Australia!? Oh hell no I couldn't live there.

First off, it's bad enough that the Environment, The Wild Life and the Weather and everything else that I haven't classified is trying to kill you, but the fact that their Censorship is so steep just makes the idea unbearable.

YOU BASTARDS BANNED MORTAL KOMBAT!! Mortal MotherF*cking Kombat!! YOU HAVE NO FUTURE!! I WILL SEEK VENGEANCE!! I WILL BRING CHAOS!! I WILL WIELD IT!!.....and I will end you..
/End Insane Rant

 

[Timedraven 117]

Give control of the internet to corporations and corrupt and/or extremist politicians? What [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran] could [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China] go [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia] wrong [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea]?

Zing!
OT: useless it is impossible to censor the internet no matter what you do someone will find a way

 

[Madara XIII]

Huh, well I don't watch child porn so I'm guessing this won't affect me too much, I will be pissed if this makes my net slower than it already is.
Personally, I know i should be outraged by the infringement on human rights going on right here but I don't think it will effect me that detrimentally. I mean the only websites I really visit are
here, youtube, facebook, a few webcomics and a few comedic sites like the oatmeal or cracked. I'm pretty certain they're not the main target of this so ... yeah meh.

This just in! All of the internet sites that you have visited are now being banned under the assumption that you're a corrupted youth who may or may not have viewed Kiddie Pr0n...

Get in the van now!!!

LOL Jk, I'm kinda meh on the subject too, but ever since Australia banned Mortal Kombat, I find myself questioning life....I mean think of all those people who wont get to enjoy the experience of mutilating their friends or random strangers in some of the most morbid manners possible.

It's truly a horrible thing to imagine..aaaaaaaaaaaaand wow that sounded really more f*cked up than it needed to be XD