Australian Internet - No clean feed

[psydT0ne]

Well it's official:

http://www.whirlpool.net.au/news/?id=1852&show=replies

It's not that the government is going to prevent access to sites that get into some sick and perverted shit, that aint the problem.

I just don't particularly want the government paying undue attention at my surfing habits and flagging me for further analysis based simply on my curiosity. (and by that i don't mean pr0n)

EDIT: This guy has a really good point -

"Will we know when we try to access "prohibited", "banned" & "black listed" information? Say for instance that www.abcdef.com is black listed... what will show up on my browser if I try to look at it? Will it come up with an ACMA announcement, or will I get a 404 message?

Will attempts to access banned information be logged and forwarded for "future attention" by law officials?

What about when Google (or any other search engine) indexes a site that is OK for the rest of the world but prohibited to be viewed in Australia. Will there be a "special" Google for Australia that doesn't show links to things we aren't supposed to know about and doesn't show image thumbnails from banned pages?

I really think this is the thin edge of the wedge, prepare to be split!"

Thoughts?

[digip]

time to tunnel all your traffic

[VaKo]

Tunnel to where though? Government's all over the world are realizing that allowing their citizens access to unfettered information is a bad thing and are clamping down on it.

[digip]

well, if he wants to go to sites blocked in his country, he can tunnel to them from servers outside his country was my point. if it ever came to it that all traffic was filtered, I think at some point people would have 1 of 2 things. 1, a revolt, and 2, private networks that spread by word of mouth, where everyoen vpn's in to access whatever it is they are hiding from the internets...

I highly doubt either of those two things will happen, as I cant see any change from what we have now. if they want to filter everything, good luck with that. Hope they have big pockets full of money to back that up. All governments filter traffic to some extent anyway, just depends on what they are looking for, like child porn. Its funny how thye always arest these peopel for child porn, but cant stop the spread of virii and spyware..

[shonen]

Ah this rubbish is really irritating and a complete waste of tax payer dollars. Those who need to get around it will while everyone else is made to suffer (so typical).

I guess we can all look forward to seeing Anonymous on the news again for DoSing Kevin Crudd's website.

BTW I noticed you posting on Ausphreak earlier the other day. =P

[Netshroud]

The government is treating adults like children. When I saw they released the R18+ games discussion paper, I knew they were going to hit us with something hard.

[shonen]

Good point Psychosis, its rather annoying that most of us "ADULT" gamers who make up the majority of games purchasing are treated as 15 year old's and now we have the same sort of thing with out Internets.

I was initially for some sort of content filter and I am sure a few people would be if it was done the correct way which has been discussed on various forums. The other sucky thing is both of the major parties will be for the filter and only a few people within each party are against it.

Then you also have the fact that the majority of people within Australia don't fully understand the technology nor do they full understand the implications of the first round of content filtering.

Bring on the election, both of the major parties are not getting my vote until they get their shit together.

[L1qu1D]

Why does the government always have to put their nose where it doesn't belong? Its really annoying how they try to control everything. I'm not in Aus or anything but maybe TorProxy would allow browse what you want unless, of course, its blacklisted as well....

[shonen]

The irony to the whole stupid proposal is that the content they are aiming to block floats around on dark nets and those who wish to get around it will and things will go even more underground or back to the old sneaker net methods.

FFS Punish those who are responsible and not the entire population. What pisses me off the most was this was not an election promise nor was it even mentioned. +1 the Pirate party imo.

[Netshroud]

This was actually Kim Beazley's plan from 2006, with one major change. When the Rudd government was elected, it was no longer optional.

[shonen]

Ah I didn't know that, then again if Kim Beazley mentioned it that could explain a few things. Listening to him speak is like when the missus talks to me. That male instinct of tuning out just kicks right in.

[Deags]

you vote dumb you get dumb.

[Rkiver]

So Australia is joining other such countries as North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Wonder if that was pointed out to the members of the Australian government if they would be so quick to continue this path?

[shonen]

Yeap we are joining the ranks of North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The sad truth is it wont be long until the UK and other countries get to share our pain. I have heard that it has already been talked about in the UK and I am sure when it goes ahead alot of other countries will be watching closely to see how it works in a western country.

The recent report by Professors Catharine Lumby, Lelia Green, and John Hartley, Untangling The Net: The Scope of Content Caught By Mandatory Internet Filtering, has found that a wide scope of content could be prohibited under the proposed filtering regime. Refused Classification (or RC) is a broad category of content that includes not just child sexual abuse material but also socially and politically controversial material -- for example, educational content on safer drug use -- as well as the grey realms of material instructing in any crime, including politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia. This type of content may be unpleasant and unpalatable but we believe that government should not have the right to block information which can inform debate of controversial issues.

http://google-au.blogspot.com/2009/12/our-...-filtering.html

The problem with this silly proposal is some of the stuff under certain categories is a little to vague. Technically speaking sites that contain information on how to break computer systems for educational purposes could be potentially black listed. So much for freedom of information.

And you can be sure that once they implement phase one of content filtering its only a matter of time until the movie industry puts it weight in and wants p2p blocked as well.

The one thing that annoys me the most is that if you are opposed to the filter you are automatically labeled a kiddy fidler and it seems the goverment has this working to its advantage. During the testing stage and the recent declaration of a mandatory content filter being implemented it has attracted very little media attention on tv. Most articles prop up on online news/blog feeds and read by people who actually understand the consequences.

I did some lurking the other day and stumbled across this Auschan looks like anon is weighing in and a shit storm maybe approaching.

[VaKo]

The only sensible thing is to work out who is building the filter, then target them. The politicians are far to well protected to go after, and so are the companies who work on these things. But the programmers themselves? Easy targets. Its called Attrition Warfare, and if done right no one will want to be associated with it.

Just for the spirit of an academic debate, just how far would you go to defend freedom?

[Seph]

Put on blue facepaint, equip axe, wear a scottish quilt like a champ. Stand outside their building shouting "They can take our internet, our R rated games and our torrents....but they can never take OUR FREEDOM" Then charge at the building........then probably get arrested.

All seriousness though, like Psychosis said about treating the general public like children. Aus tried to release a government funded personal firewall for computers a while ago too. Wow that went really well. Their whole clause is that to protect minors from inapropriate material, but I dont buy it. This same argument applies to the R rated games too. Protecting minors from stuff like that is up to the responsibility of the parents, the whole nation shouldnt have to be censored too accomplish this.

Still, its gonna happen regardless what a few angry noobs in the net say unfortuneatly =( My christmas wish is that they get it right....

I doubt it

[shonen]

Well I wouldn't go as far as rioting or any other questionable activity. So far I have written a few emails to ministers and putting forward some idea's to the block the filter organization that only just formed. So if any of the Aussie crowd or even international folks have some skills in website coding, photoshop or anything else mentioned on the wiki contact one of the representatives.

I found this while lurking the internet and I lol'd.

So I decided to make some of my own, please excuse some of the low res pic's. I was spewing I couldn't find a better guilty image. But meh it does the job.

And yes I was that BORED! :P

[shonen]

[psydT0ne]

Love it dude....LOLZ

[shonen]

thanks mate glad ya got a giggle out of it. XD

Looks like Australia is already being filtered, reports are hitting the internet that Conroy has sicked his hell spawn minions on stephenconroy.com. The auDA pulled the domain name down in 3 hours which is completely unheard of. The website is now located at http://stephen-conroy.com

For news articles see the following links for details.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technolog...91218-l1bn.html

http://www.stopinternetcensorship.org/57-a...roy-com-au.html

Funny Hitler video

This minister seriously needs a good bitch slap.

[Deags]

[H@L0_F00]

I wonder if they really think this will work... I mean, it's the 21st fuckin century! Do they really think the pedo bears are going to be hindered by this idiotic idea of theirs? I don't think so... As we all already know, those who need to get around this will. People can stop hoping for them to do this correctly, because they will not, and never can. And they HAVE to show some kind of success with the damn thing, so they'll overplay any "take downs" they do, and it will be believed by the masses that they are making progress.

+1 for mass anarchy

+1 for civil war

+1 for revolution

+1 for enlisting our Chinese friends to take down the filters, government, and any others associated

[VaKo]

With this talk of anarchy, and civil war, how many of you would be prepared to actually take a gun and make a serious push to bring down the government? Would you consider getting involved in politics first? The whole reason we're in this mess is that people are happy to shout about things on the internet, but when it actually comes down to political activism and standing for office yourself, most people are silent. They they are confused when the only people they can vote have nothing you actually want to vote for. Civil war and anarchy are long, painful, drawn out processes, and you will loose a lot of things you care about along the way. Funny pictures on forums are not going to get things changed, engaging in politics will get things changed, and should be considered before you start planting IED's outside your MP's house.

[H@L0_F00]

Yes, I would take steps to overthrow the government if they did something like this, or anything that would take away or change any of the rights that I, as well as every other living person, should be entitled to. I live in the USA, and (as far as I know...), something like this is not going on. My original plan was to move somewhere else, where people aren't such idiots, where people value education (a free one at that), where obesity IS NOT A DISEASE, etc, etc, but I've changed my mind, because that's like running away from your problems... I want to stay here and attempt to make as much positive change as possible. So, yes, I might end up in the orgy of lies, scandals, and two-facing they call politics.

[Deags]

I'll lead the charge when it gets bad enough, Vako. For now though, I'm a member and try to participate in the political process. You have more power as a member of a party than just a voter.