On the ISP filtering and censorship front

Image via Wikipedia

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the governments ISP filtering scam.. I mean plan, is in shreds. Asher Moses writes:

The Government’s plan to censor the internet is in tatters, with Australia’s largest ISP saying it will not take part in live trials of the system and the second largest committing only to a scaled-back trial.[source]

Asher also notes that the Minister has been writing to his critics saying that the “Live” test won’t include any real customers. I ask myself – Is the minister that stupid, or does he have that much contempt for the Australian people that he just pulls ministerial directions out of his arse? I think even the most technically illiterate Australian Internet user would take “Live” to mean that the test was being carried out in a real environment with real customers other wise what’s the point?

The Greens who have done a commendable job of calling Senator Conroy to account already, have foreshadowed the government’s back down with Senator Ludlum quoted as saying

…he believed Labor would drop the mandatory filtering policy in the new year once the now scaled-back trials were completed.

[source]

Then of course we have the UK Wikipedia scandal which illustrates the sheer absurdity of the concept of filtering (censoring) the Internet. Essentially -there was an article on the German metal band Scorpian, concerning their 1976 Album Virgin Killers which depicts a pre pubescent girl naked with her privates obscured by fake tears in the album cover. A child porn watchdog flagged the image and six major ISPs in England which use filtering, blocked access to the whole of wikipedia ( I can hear the cries of University students from here).

Note that a) the album has been in circulation for 32 years b)is still available and viewable to UK listeners via Amazon and their friendly record store c) It has not been made illegal in any western democracy.

Now of course there was only an outcry because a lot of people use Wikipedia, imagine a situation where the government or a special interest group want to block some political or religious comment . Now of course Clive Hamilton the poster boy for censorship, thinks Australia’s democracy is robust enough that political censorship will never happen. I don’t know? I might like to ask David Hicks how robust he thought our democracy was when he was allowed to rot in a gulag belonging to our allies.

In a stunning move Conroy and Co have constructed their own blog to ask the Australian people what they want for the digital economy. This decision is only stunning in the sense that it has taken a Minister for Broadband Communications this long to think of it.

Conroy’s Blog

I do wonder though at this stage if the government will be selective in the gathering of evidence from these blogs. Are they really interested in listening? It would seem that Conroy’s manner, speech and actions indicate no – but we will see. The best thing we can do is present reasoned arguments and good ideas.

Here are some selected comments from the first blog post:

I feel quite offended at reading this in an apparently democratic nation. The tone in the initial blog makes it seem as though public consultation is a novel idea that the government is gifting to the people, ie it seems as though the Minister considers public consultation as a special bonus to us citizens. Well I …..

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I would like to register my opposition to mandatory ISP filtering as proposed by Senator Conroy. As someone involved in the technology industry, as a parent, and as a defender of free speech and wary of government intrusion into privacy, I find this whole proposal repugnant and an example of ignorant, distracting grandstanding for political points…

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Hi, Thanks for the opportunity to provide feedback. It is sincerely appreciated. I have considered the issue of filtering from many perspectives, and have to admit from the onset, that I do not approve of the wholesale filtering of the Internet connection coming into my home. Let me explain. I am a Parent, a Christian, and an IT Security Consultant, so I believe that I have a fairly wide range of perspectives that I can use in examining the issue.

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Now over at Public Polity there is a post that dissects the internal labour party politics that might have influence on the ISP filtering debacle. And just incase you missed it NSW’s law now regards cartoons as people, charging a man with distasteful pictures of Bart and Lisa Simpson having intercourse, with child pornography. Mind you if they are real people and the show first aired in 1987 Bart and Lisa are now in their mid twenties.

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