Australia's Internet Filter Switches On In July

[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.

 

[icame]

Hey anon... I know we have had our differences in the past (Me calling you cunts and all.) but could you find it in your heart to be really swell guys and DDOS the shit out of these ISP's? Thank you

 

[Gothtasical]

no its not im assuming that you trust the government thats fine you don't like piracy or porn thats also fine however no one has the right to restrict ones freedome it is an aspect of life and everyone deserves it and any bit of restriction even if it is a crime will make people do it more! therefore complety ruining the point of it in the first place

Edit: sorry meant to quote someone and they know who but computer acting up

 

[HaussVonHorne]

Government shuts down your internet. Shut down your government.

 

[SillyBear]

no its not im assuming that you trust the government thats fine you don't like piracy or porn thats also fine however no one has the right to restrict ones freedome it is an aspect of life and everyone deserves it and any bit of restriction even if it is a crime will make people do it more! therefore complety ruining the point of it in the first place

Edit: sorry meant to quote someone and they know who but computer acting up

No one has the right to restrict anyone's freedom?

Dude, what? Yes they do. Millions of people have that right. We call them police, lawyers, juries, judges and politicians.

What kind of world you live in sucka?

 

[infohippie]

You know what, fuck this censorship thing. I'm not even Australian and this pisses me off. To any Aussies that are getting hit with this crap I have something for you:

The Tor Project [http://www.torproject.org/]

For those unfamiliar think of it as an uber-proxy, it takes a bit of TLC to get running quite right, and it's slower then regular internet, but it pretty well unblocks anything that you want once you've gotten it down.

For those that do know about Tor, well, I guess I needn't tell you about it.

They really should make this kind of thing illegal if it isn't already.

The government(And organizations like this) should have every right to block websites from user access.

I can't believe someone on the Escapist would say something like that. Any government should absolutely not have the right to block anything on the internet. If there is a site providing something blatantly illegal, like CP, take it down and prosecute the people running it! And do it publically. Governments simply cannot be trusted with the censorship stick. Or do you believe China has the right to block websites referencing the province of Xizàng Tibet? Or that Iran had the right to block Twitter and Facebook ahead of their elections to prevent people discussing the possibility of voting for the opposition? Frankly, I don't trust my government not to use censorship for blatant political purposes any more than I trust Iran's government not to do the same thing.

At least it's not technically possible to completely block a site, so long as there's one single location in the world it's accessible from. There will always be a way to get to it. And that sticks in the craw of governments world-wide which in turn makes my day a little brighter.

 

[Nethank]

The fuck is this shit. We can't get an R18+ rating for games but we can get dumped with this crap.

 

[Chris646]

If it isn't taken down shortly after it's set up, then I hope the Escapist doesn't go on there, what with all the Australian readers and Yahtzee and all.

 

[quhouv vhqwiufv qwiu]

As an Australian citizen this really worries me, although I'm confident it's not going to be of much use.

 

[Chappy]

And cue Anon talking these guys down. I'm almost certain they'll notice this within a week.

Especially if they tried to block 4chan... oh my how this could go very bad. :/

My advice though? These companies run on money obviously so when they realise this scheme is losing them money they will turn it off after all I believe there are other ISP's?

 

[infohippie]

This kind of stuff has been going on in the UK for years. A law which I think is unique to the UK also bans possession of Lolicon, or anything that may be interpreted as such.

Not unique to the UK. The same kind of stuff is banned in Australia too. A couple years ago a guy in Sydney was convicted on child porn charges merely for possessing a joke drawing of Bart and Lisa Simpson.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

so its just stopping child porn? thats good so it wont affect me and like everyone else in the country.

wouldnt it be a better idea to not block the websites and just monitor who accesses the site?

I think I would rather get rid of the source rather than punish the guys that enjoy it... yeah, they deserve punishment, but just putting them in jail rather than blocking access seems a bit sadistic...

And the funny thing is people acting like the internet shouldn't be censored... we're talking about blocking child porn here. I don't care how anti-censorship you are, that's simply illegal and sick. If you really think that "personal freedom" should be so sacred that we allow child pornography to be shown anywhere then your morals are completely off.

 

[Awexsome]

I can't disagree with this since it's censorship is quite reasonable at this time. Unless anyone here wanted to go look at child abuse sites.

It's important to keep an eye out so that they don't go too far but this isn't too far. At all. With how lawless of internet has been getting out of control recently it really does need some regulation in small steps so that they don't drop the hammer all at once in an overreaction.

 

[Rainboq]

If the government had the ability to stop criminals from communicating with each other, organized crime would be a thing of the past. And any other crime would be relatively manageable. So yeah, I don't see what is wrong with hindering organized crime.

Wow, you really seem to trust the government.

I'd say a little to much....

*reads Little Brother again*

Personal gripe: I couldn't even get through the first couple chapters of that book. The writing was just tortured. It's got a great concept, but it's trying too hard. Does it change later on, or pretty much stay the same way the whole way through?

It gets quite good later on.

 

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

And cue Anon talking these guys down. I'm almost certain they'll notice this within a week.

Especially if they tried to block 4chan... oh my how this could go very bad. :/

My advice though? These companies run on money obviously so when they realise this scheme is losing them money they will turn it off after all I believe there are other ISP's?

4chan was on the original blacklist, as well as Encyclopedia Dramatica. Safe to assume they'll be on the new one too.

 

[infohippie]

well I sent a complaint to my ISP (Optus), not much else I can do atm.

You can leave them for another ISP, and tell them exactly why. Also let them know you will be encouraging anyone you can who has service with them to do the same. Since this filter was not part of your contract with Optus when you signed up, surely this constitutes breach of contract on Optus's part and you should be able to use this as a way to leave without attracting early-closure penalties?