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Most Australians will have their web access censored as of next month
- jacques_chester 15y agoI'd like to remind HNers that Australia is filled with bright, intelligent, thoughtful and well-educated people. We also have Senators.
- hoodoof 15y agoThis is being put in place to kowtow to the religious right isn't it?
- jacques_chester 15y agoTo a particular Senator, yes. Fielding. Senator Conroy is the Minister and a bull-headed man in his own right, so it might not get dropped right away. However the composition of the Senate will change on July 1st, with the Greens assuming the balance of power. I personally suspect that internet filtering will be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the Greens over the details of a carbon tax / trading scheme.
- nl 15y agoI believe that censorship is mostly being pushed by Senator Conroy himself, who comes from the Catholic, Social Conservative right faction of the party (For non-Australians: the left-wing Labor party is in power in Australia, with the support of a number of independents. Conroy is a member of the Labor party, but isn't from the trade-unions and is regarded as right-wing. He's also very socially conservative for Australia. For example, he opposed the RU486 "morning after pill" on a conscience vote http://www.australiavotes.org/conscience/index.php#vote http://www.australiavotes.org/conscience/index.php#vote) There's no doubt that Fielding likes the plan too, but don't expect to disappear while it is in Conroy's portfolio. I've never heard of the internet filtering being a carbon-tax bargaining chip before. Given that it was planned before Labor supported the carbon tax I'd be surprised if it planned that way. (Also, note that this is technically voluntary filtering by these ISPs, so it probably wont' go away even if Conroy left)
- jacques_chester 15y agoPlanned that way? No. Being repurposed? Quite possibly.
- nl 15y agoFrankly, I hope you are right!
- malbertife 15y ago"For example, he opposed the RU486 "morning after pill" on a conscience vote" In fact, the RU486 is a abortion-inducing pill effective in the first 2 months of pregnancy [1], while "morning after pill" is a common name for emergency contraception pills effective for the first few days after intercourse [2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mifepristone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mifepristone [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_contraception http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_contraception
- nl 15y agoSorry, my mistake. Thanks.
- Canada 15y agoWhat are the best news sites to follow Australia's politics?
- Joakal 15y agoBig list of independent Australian media: http://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/dw95o/big_list_of_independent_australian_media/ http://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/dw95o/big_list_of... I don't follow political opinion pieces though, so I can't say which are good.
- keyle 15y agohttp://www.theaustralian.com.au/ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
- mambodog 15y agoI really wouldn't recommend The Australian. This is a newspaper who have stated in editorial that it is their goal to "destroy" the Australian Greens party. Agenda runs thick in their editorial decisions.
- jacques_chester 15y agoWhat they actually said was: "Greens leader Bob Brown has accused The Australian of trying to wreck the alliance between the Greens and Labor. We wear Senator Brown's criticism with pride. We believe he and his Green colleagues are hypocrites; that they are bad for the nation; and that they should be destroyed at the ballot box." http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/needed-a-policy-for-julia-direction-for-labor/story-e6frg71x-1225916087426 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/needed-a-policy...
- Maxious 15y agoThey also outed a prominent anonymous political blogger because the head of the ABC said bloggers could provide better analysis than newspapers sometimes: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/39038.html http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/39038.html And they attempted to sue a journalism professor for repeating comments by a former journalist at a conference that the Australian had an overt policy of suppressing stories that suggested that climate change was real. http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/11/26/the-torture-of-writing-about-climate-change-at-the-oz-one-journos-story/ http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/11/26/the-torture-of-writing-a...
- xavoy 15y agoTo bypass this filter, Google SSH Tunneling. Overseas servers are cheap. This is the beginning of the end. I'm seriously considering moving overseas.
- jacques_chester 15y agoNah, Senator Fielding will only be in the Senate for a few more weeks. After him the Greens will hold the balance of power. Personally I think they're mostly loons, but they "get" the internet better than the major parties.
- Maxious 15y agoOr switch to Internode/iiNet ho oppose internet censorship aswell as being cheaper in some cases and support powerusers well (ipv6, adjusting your line's DSLAM profile for lower ping or higher reliability and letting you run servers on any port
- endgame 15y agoThey are required to block some usenet groups, though: http://www.internode.on.net/residential/product_features/premium_usenet/#What_groups_does_the_Australian http://www.internode.on.net/residential/product_features/pre...
- dorian-graph 15y agoIf you route /all/ traffic on your computer through SSH, are there any downsides? Like, latency or some sites restricting you from accessing (Sounds silly, I know, as the idea is to have open access to all websites but I thought it may be a possibility), online multiplayer, etc? Or would it be more reasonable to route only select data like HTTP, FTP and email? I s'pose any instant-messaging too..
- dzderic 15y agoTry something like OpenVPN which uses UDP, which in my experience is much faster than a SSH tunnel.
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- Joakal 15y agoAlso looks like internet and phone companies are required to keep emails and text messages because it's effective against child sex abuse [0]. [0] http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/22/3250398.htm http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/22/3250398.htm Edit: Looks like it's part of the hacking crackdown according to this article: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/police-win-phone-data-new-laws-to-invade-your-privacy/story-e6freuzr-1226079536003 http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/police-win-ph... Warrantless requests for electronic data.
- jacques_chester 15y agoI love the argument. "Without these laws we were able to do our job, therefore, pass these laws".
- Joakal 15y agoFor those who wish to change internet plans; here's a good plan search: http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc/?action=search http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc/?action=search
- keyle 15y agoI'm with TPG... Can't see if they're on board or not?
- Joakal 15y agoThe main article says two biggest ISPs: Telstra and Optus. Edit: Conroy have stated TPG [and Internode] wouldn't join: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/more-isps-volunteer-to-block-child-abuse-web-pages/story-fn4htb9o-1226063575349 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/mor...
- hoodoof 15y agoWhat is the technical mechanism being used to implement this?
- jacques_chester 15y agoI believe it's some form of URL filtering at the ISP's proxy, but don't quote me.
- joahua 15y agoThe "changing one character" suggestion in TFA would imply that... it's hardly deep packet inspection if that's supposed to work. Obviously contingent on quoted person knowing enough about how this stuff works... though I assume she's been appropriately briefed on the issue!
- elithrar 15y agoIt's in the article: > "The ACMA will compile and manage a list of URLs of child abuse content that will include the appropriate subsection of the ACMA blacklist as well as child abuse URLs that are provided by reputable international organisations (to be blocked)," the spokesman said. Obviously, we all know URL filtering is useless and that the serious offenders are using P2P or encrypted connections (SSH tunnels through foreign VPS's, for example). In fact, it's even mentioned in the article[1]. [1] "Child abuse material is more likely to be exchanged on peer-to-peer networks and private networks anyway and is a matter for law enforcement." http://www.news.com.au/technology/internet-filter/telstra-optus-to-begin-censoring-web-next-month/story-fn5j66db-1226079954138 http://www.news.com.au/technology/internet-filter/telstra-op...
- vacri 15y agoSwinging voters are more interested in slogans than effectiveness :)
- Dramatize 15y agoThe great thing about Australia is we still have a choice to change to another provider. I'm a fan of Netspace's Naked plan.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Canada 15y ago> Electronic Frontiers Association board member Colin Jacobs also expressed concern at the scheme, saying the Government and internet providers needed to be more upfront about websites being blocked and offer an appeals process for website owners who felt URLs had been blocked unfairly. As if they have any intention of even notifying sites they choose to block.
- dqh 15y agoThis, combined with ridiculous housing prices, overcrowded public transport, generally high prices for imported items, poor availability and high price of digital content, huge tax on wine .. I'm also seriously considering the move to another country, perhaps the US. As much as I love the culture, more and more I do not see Melbourne as a viable long term solution.
- ashconnor 15y agoIt's funny because most Brits still cannot wait to emigrate down under.
- elithrar 15y ago> overcrowded public transport I've always thought Australia to have pretty darned good public transport, relatively speaking. That is to say that the US has (generally) fucking terrible public transport, outside of NYC and some small commuter services.
- nopassrecover 15y agoSydney apparently has good public transport (I found it fine on holidays), and Melbourne's trams aren't bad, but Adelaide is terrible and none of the cities compare to European cities in terms of reliability, coverage or frequency in my experience.
- boyter 15y agoSydney's public transport isn't great. Usually dirty, and frequently late. However it is a lot better then it was 1 year ago. I take the train every day and rarely get a seat or clean carriage. If it was cheaper I wouldn't mind, but $50 a week to stand in a non air-conditioned/non-heated dirty train isn't what I consider a good deal.
- megablast 15y agoAdelaide is bad, but it is the cheapest as well. Each ticket lasts for 2 hours, on trains, trams or buses. The problem with Adelaide is that it is too spread out, as soon as you leave the 1 mile city center, you hit the suburbs with houses with front and back gardens, all low density housing. It will never be good. Sydney public transport sucks, it is very expensive, each ticket counts for only one trip. The trains are ok, the buses are very bad. The roads are awful in Sydney, and too much congestion. The state governments response to this is to build more roads, because they are too scared to make proper decisions. Melbourne has the best public transport, but as with all Australian cities, it is too spread out (not as bad as Adelaide).
- benjiweber 15y agoThis worked out well in the UK, censoring dangerous content such as text from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_United_Kingdom#IWF.2FWikipedia_controversy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_Unit...
- thisrod 15y agoPretend you're an MP. You, or at least your advisors, know how Christian conservatives "think". They believe in things that make them Christian conservatives, like censoring the web. They'll vote for you if you say that you believe those things. You also know how hackers think. They believe things which evidence suggests are true. Regardless of what you say, if the government has failed to censor the web for 15 years, hackers won't believe it's going to happen. They'll vote for you based on other things. You need to maximise votes. The winning strategy is obvious: loudly announce your intention to censor the web, but fail to do it. For bonus points, get some experts to tell the Christians it couldn't be done, so you can't be blamed for failing. I just love Australian politics.
- chrisohara 15y agoSerious question - anybody want to buy unfilter.com.au? I own it
- nazgulnarsil 15y agoI wish everyone was as analytic as you when it came to politics.
- dongsheng 15y agoI moved to Australia 4 years ago from China, uncensored internet is one of the best thing I have here, in China, government monitor everything on internet, and block plenty websites regarding politics and free speech etc, basically, government block anything they don't like, even the websites they not sure about. I wish the internet won't be that bad in Australia.
- Devilboy 15y agoAt least (most of us) will still have a choice.