Post by Cel on Jan 2, 2009 21:50:09 GMT -5
Uproar as Great Aussie Firewall threatens internet freedom
Page 1 of 2 View as a single page 8:17AM Monday Dec 29, 2008
Tanalee Smith
The sun is setting on Australia's internet freedom, according to unhappy ISPs and opponents of a planned internet mega-filter.
The sun is setting on Australia's internet freedom, according to unhappy ISPs and opponents of a planned internet mega-filter.
Connect
* Telecom ringing the changes in 2009
* Nappies at dawn as yummy mummy forum fight gets nasty
SYDNEY - A proposed internet filter dubbed the "Great Aussie Firewall" is promising to make Australia one of the strictest internet regulators among democratic countries.
Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory internet filter that would block at least 1,300 websites prohibited by the government - mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.
Hundreds protested in state capitals earlier this month.
"This is obviously censorship," said Justin Pearson Smith, 29, organizer of protests in Melbourne and an officer of one of a dozen Facebook groups against the filter.
The list of prohibited sites, which the government isn't making public, is arbitrary and not subject to legal scrutiny, Smith said, leaving it to the government or lawmakers to pursue their own online agendas.
"I think the money would be better spent in investing in law enforcement and targeting producers of child porn," he said.
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Internet providers say a filter could slow browsing speeds, and many question whether it would achieve its intended goals. Illegal material such as child pornography is often traded on peer-to-peer networks or chats, which would not be covered by the filter.
"People don't openly post child porn, the same way you can't walk into a store in Sydney and buy a machine gun," said Geordie Guy, spokesman for Electronic Frontiers Australia, an internet advocacy organisation. "A filter of this nature only blocks material on public websites. But illicit material ... is traded on the black market, through secret channels."
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy proposed the filter earlier this year, following up on a promise of the year-old Labor Party government to make the internet cleaner and safer.
"This is not an argument about free speech," he said in an email. "We have laws about the sort of material that is acceptable across all mediums and the internet is no different. Currently, some material is banned and we are simply seeking to use technology to ensure those bans are working."
Jim Wallace, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, welcomed the proposed filter as "an important safeguard for families worried about their children inadvertently coming across this material on the net."
Conroy's office said a peer-to-peer filter could be considered. Most of today's filters are unable to do that, though companies are developing the technology.
The plan, which would have to be approved by Parliament, has two tiers. A mandatory filter would block sites on an existing blacklist determined by the Australian Communications Media Authority. An optional filter would block adult content.
Page 1 of 2 View as a single page 8:17AM Monday Dec 29, 2008
Tanalee Smith
The sun is setting on Australia's internet freedom, according to unhappy ISPs and opponents of a planned internet mega-filter.
The sun is setting on Australia's internet freedom, according to unhappy ISPs and opponents of a planned internet mega-filter.
Connect
* Telecom ringing the changes in 2009
* Nappies at dawn as yummy mummy forum fight gets nasty
SYDNEY - A proposed internet filter dubbed the "Great Aussie Firewall" is promising to make Australia one of the strictest internet regulators among democratic countries.
Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory internet filter that would block at least 1,300 websites prohibited by the government - mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.
Hundreds protested in state capitals earlier this month.
"This is obviously censorship," said Justin Pearson Smith, 29, organizer of protests in Melbourne and an officer of one of a dozen Facebook groups against the filter.
The list of prohibited sites, which the government isn't making public, is arbitrary and not subject to legal scrutiny, Smith said, leaving it to the government or lawmakers to pursue their own online agendas.
"I think the money would be better spent in investing in law enforcement and targeting producers of child porn," he said.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Internet providers say a filter could slow browsing speeds, and many question whether it would achieve its intended goals. Illegal material such as child pornography is often traded on peer-to-peer networks or chats, which would not be covered by the filter.
"People don't openly post child porn, the same way you can't walk into a store in Sydney and buy a machine gun," said Geordie Guy, spokesman for Electronic Frontiers Australia, an internet advocacy organisation. "A filter of this nature only blocks material on public websites. But illicit material ... is traded on the black market, through secret channels."
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy proposed the filter earlier this year, following up on a promise of the year-old Labor Party government to make the internet cleaner and safer.
"This is not an argument about free speech," he said in an email. "We have laws about the sort of material that is acceptable across all mediums and the internet is no different. Currently, some material is banned and we are simply seeking to use technology to ensure those bans are working."
Jim Wallace, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, welcomed the proposed filter as "an important safeguard for families worried about their children inadvertently coming across this material on the net."
Conroy's office said a peer-to-peer filter could be considered. Most of today's filters are unable to do that, though companies are developing the technology.
The plan, which would have to be approved by Parliament, has two tiers. A mandatory filter would block sites on an existing blacklist determined by the Australian Communications Media Authority. An optional filter would block adult content.