The great firewall of Australia
Offline Hi guys I would just like to tell the world, or those who are as yet uninformed, that the Federal Australian government is about to introduce censorship of our internet. The same type they have in China and Burma. It will be mandatory and at the ISP level. This is to supposedly stop illegal and child porn sites, but in fact it will operate by a complaint system. If you feel a site is inopropriate then you can contact the relevant goverment body (the board of film and media classification) and complain. They will then view the site and classify it. If it is classified as "refused classification" it will be added to the blocked list. This is in a country that has NO first ammendment or bill of rights at all, and where a few years ago a hand full of Christian activists had a french movie classified as "RC" or in effect, banned. We may never again be able to view the rational responders website should these theists complain.Who is behind this filter? It appears the government owes a political favour to the ACL or Australian Christian Lobby group, who are well organised and funded.There is huge opposition to the filter within the country, but the powers that be, Senator Steven Conroy (a Christian himself) are choosing to ignore it. You can read more about it here or visit the satirical site at http://stephen-conroy.com/news.php for a lighter look at the issue, if there is a light side to this horror. or more at http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2778257.htm
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So much for the free world...
We aint lost yet and we are pissed now!
I sincerely hope you guys don't get cut off. This sucks. I've always known Australia was bad for censorship, but there was almost always a way around it until this.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Sounds fun. Duno why they bother tbh. Just vote them out if ppl don't want it. Although that would be supporting child porn...... your choice. How about we see what actually gets blocked before the revolution begins?
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
... you might want to look into other Australian censorship programs...
Like the hordes of videogames/movies that are already banned -_-
Atkinson... must... die...
What Would Kharn Do?
OK, while you can still see the RRS, check this link:
http://www.torproject.org/easy-download.html.en
That ought to be able to blast right through any site that requires a human to review it for content. There will not be anything for the censors to review as you are just connecting directly to one of your several tens of thousands of privacy loving friends around the world. That and the actual point where you connect to the internet changes randomly every few minutes.
Also, every hop through the network has it's own layer of encryption that would take weeks for anyone to break even a single message. All of which make stuff that you do on it slow as shit. But hey, if that is the level that one is forced to stoop to...
=
I know all about it. More countries than you know ban games and movies btw even the good old US of A. Well only movies not games
Yes they probably will at some point block some site that shouldn't be blocked. Just hold off the revolution untill then 
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
Why wait for the hammer to hit the ground before the counter attack? It would appear to be falling already.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I'm still against all censorship.
I think it is detrimental to society to try and inhibit ideas by classifying them "not morally correct" and therefore taboo.
That is just abandonment of history. If something is a crime, the country involved can look into it.
I consider this the same as the banning of books though. Nationwide denial of some webservers doesn't eliminate the information, it just tries its best to make it unavailable and therefore becomes more sought after by making people curious what is being blocked.
Is that really what is needed? Not to mention all the problems that anyone can complain, and this whole thing is based on someone's personal idea of morality. It will be hilariously bad if someone decides blasphemy is something that needs to be banned, or _____ kinks are immoral.
Not to mention that the age of consent varies from location to location in the world, and what is legal somewhere will likely not be legal somewhere else due to this. The "block it all out!" line of thinking isn't going to help Australians.
I'm still in awe that video games are banned in some countries for example. Games like GTA that every 13 year old here gets to play. I remember when Mortal Kombat was the topic of discussion, and thought at the time that it was a big joke that people could get outraged over it.
It reminds me how here in the USA for movies, extreme blood and gore were always OK but sex is taboo. Decapitation? Sure kiddies have as much as you want. Sex? WTFBBQ we can't let this reach the public! Censor it all out!
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
This is beside the point of the OP, but I would strongly advice against using the words "porn" and "child" in the same sentence.
Pornography is depiction of legal activities between consenting adults, for the purpose of sexual arousal. Many feel that it is morally wrong to produce and distribute such material, but it is still - as it should be - protected under laws and acts intended to guarantee the freedom of speech.
In the case of minors, such said material must be viewed as documentation of criminal abuse which should be handed over to the police upon sight. It must be viewed as criminal evidence and the act of NOT handing such material over to the police upon sight must be viewed as criminal obstruction of justice.
"The idea of God is the sole wrong for which I cannot forgive mankind." (Alphonse Donatien De Sade)
http://www.kinkspace.com
Yeah I get your point dude, but how do you avoid using those two words to describe what these senators are doing. I could say CP, is this safer? They are pushing the debate toward that aspect, in other words, when you oppose it, they say you must support CP, which clearly only very sick and twisted people would, and it shuts a lot of people up including the media.
Also is it not a little paranoid that you can't utter those words without the threat of the police knocking down your door?
The point is that this is just a front. This filter will block anything that is considered so called illegal, such as sites that are debating the law on Euthanasia, as it is illegal. This is not democracy, open debate on issues is very healthy for a democracy. The USA has guaranteed free speech under the first amendment, we don't. Debating issues should never be illegal.
The second part of the filter relies on complaints to the censors or ACMA. If they deem the page to contain offensive or RC material it will be put on the secret black list of urls. After a few years when the list becomes huge it will slow our already pathetic and expensive broadband network to a crawl.
The main fact is that it will not and cannot work. It is so simple to circumvent using a VPN or proxy, but this is not the point, we are being lied to by these politicians. They have been told by many many IT experts that it won't stop CP and that it will affect internet speed, in addition to blocking 1% of legal sites, but they just ignore them and press ahead.
This blocked list may include sites hosting or selling games that are banned or as they put it 'refused classification', RC, as we don't yet have any rating above MA15 for games and our X rating for movies is very tame, no spanking or risky stuff allowed and even this is only legal in Canberra ( where the politicians live) and the Northern Territory. They do a thriving mail order trade apparently.
Once something like this filter is in law it is easily upgraded to include politically sensitive material and very difficult to repeal.
The Australian Christian lobby or ACL is already pressuring the government here to up the ante and include M15 content after a year of operation, so where does this stop? When these people have forcibly imposed their morals on an entire country and we have only a G rated internet!
One more worrying thing here is there is hardly any news coverage of this plan and even less public debate, other than the internet which is awash with info and protest. Not many people I speak to are even aware it is happening and even then don't believe it. There is huge public ignorance on the topic.
Take nothing for granted