More worries in Oz...

[Plan C]

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...10125&Itemid=1

http://www.theage.com.au/cgi-bin/com...351430987.html

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news...?page=fullpage

You guys seen this? Appaling...

EDIT: This is even better:

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news...955922160.html

What is wrong with those people?

[whhyy]

This + the drought to dryness debacle make me worried about where my country is going.

Peoples Republic of Australia, anyone?

[Plan C]

You see, the reason why I follow current events in Australia is because I have been seriously thinking about moving there. It has always been perceived here (UK) as one of the best countries in the world to live in.

I'm outraged at this BS, I cannot believe that we all allow politicians to treat us this way telling us what's right and what's wrong.

If this trend continues you will see me in the street.

[whhyy]

I hope we get to have a say in the matter.

[MathiasOfAthens]

The Federal Government is attempting to silence critics of its controversial plan to censor the internet, which experts say will break the internet while doing little to stop people from accessing illegal material such as child pornography.
Internet providers and the government's own tests have found that presently available filters are not capable of adequately distinguishing between legal and illegal content and can degrade internet speeds by up to 86 per cent.
Documents obtained by Fairfax Media show the office of the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, tried to bully ISP staff into suppressing their criticisms of the plan.
Senator Conroy has since last year's election victory remained tight-lipped on the specifics of his $44.2 million policy but, grilled by a Senate Estimates committee this week, he said the Government was looking at forcing ISPs to implement a two-tiered filtering system.

Brisbane

I decided to post a clip of it for anyone not interested in clicking the link.

[Plan C]

Brisbane

I decided to post a clip of it for anyone not interested in clicking the link.

Thanks mate, I'm at work so I have to be pretty quick with my posting

[whhyy]

The proposed censorship is more advanced than that in any liberal democracy and would put Australia on a par with oppressive regimes such as Iran, the internet industry says.

... Oh god...

[Don in the North]

this is why i didnt vote labour, and also why i didnt vote liberal either. both parties are led by arrogant selfserving politicians who also are pretensious enough to think they know more than an average citizen therefor should be making personal-decisions instead of them(the population)

if the greens (or democrats infact) hadve won we wouldnt be seeing bs such as this getting past the senate floor. I hope to find out more on protests that arise from this or maybe some petitions just as well.

[MathiasOfAthens]

The first tier, which internet users would not be able to opt out of, would block all "illegal material". Senator Conroy has previously said Australians would be able to opt out of any filters to obtain "uncensored access to the internet".

The second tier, which is optional, would filter out content deemed inappropriate for children, such as pornography.

The second tier is fine in my opinion, but the first one is far more worrisome. An unoptional censor? Block all illegal material? Who decides whats illegal and whats not? And what is Illegal material on the internet? Since pornography is part of tier two what the hell could tier one be all about ? Apparently Aussis will be able to have censored access to the internet.

[whhyy]

The second tier is fine in my opinion, but the first one is far more worrisome. An unoptional censor? Block all illegal material? Who decides whats illegal and whats not? And what is Illegal material on the internet? Since pornography is part of tier two what the hell could tier one be all about ? Apparently Aussis will be able to have censored access to the internet.

Tier one will be about blocking things like torrents and rapidshare I think. To stop illegal downloads. There are problems with this - namely that they will have to block totally legitimate files in the process.

This leads me to believe that it will probably be optional as well.

[Plan C]

Despite the fact that authorities' intentions are hopefully legitimate I dread to think how vulnerable the freedom of speech has now become in countries hailed to be strongholds of democracy and freedom.

Mark my words - governments change but regulations remain and this level of prerogative will never be willingly relinquished by any government.

If this law is passed it will take mass civil dissent to overturn it.

[Point Blank]

There is a very strong authoritarian streak in Australia. They recently tried to bully us in New Zealand to accept their new anti-natural supplement laws, all pushed by the pharmaceutical industry, so the industry in both countries would be controlled from Australia. Believe me they pulled as many dirty tricks as they could.

Try going through Australia customs, they are the post invasive in the world.

There shouldn't be any censoring unless its optional. Obviously.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Also from Brisbane

However, none of the filters were completely accurate. They allowed access to between 2 per cent and 13 per cent of material that should have been blocked, and wrongly blocked between 1.3 per cent and 7.8 per cent of websites that should have been allowed.

"Why would you want to damage the performance and utility of the internet and not actually keep the bad stuff out anyway," said John Lindsay, carrier relations manager at Internode.

In Senate Estimates, Senator Ludlam expressed concern that all sorts of politically-sensitive material could be added to the block list and otherwise legitimate sites - for example, YouTube - could be rendered inaccessible based on content published by users.

"The black list ... can become very grey depending on how expansive the list becomes - euthanasia material, politically related material, material about anorexia. There is a lot of distasteful stuff on the internet," he said.

So not all illegal sites were being blocked and sites that were ok were being blocked.
Also there is possiblity that Youtube could be blocked because of sensitivity of videos posted there.
Hell maybe even TWC could be blocked.
EDIT----------------------------------------------------------------

Tier one will be about blocking things like torrents and rapidshare I think. To stop illegal downloads. There are problems with this - namely that they will have to block totally legitimate files in the process.

This leads me to believe that it will probably be optional as well.

I thought at first that that was what tier one was for but look here ....
also from Brisbane

But neither filter tier will be capable of censoring content obtained over peer-to-peer file sharing networks, which account for an estimated 60 per cent of internet traffic.

[boofhead]

Well, that blows. I like looking at illegal material (not child porn). Can't find it anywhere else but the net when you live in a crappy mining town hundreds of kms from the nearest not even major city. Illegal e-books about making things, ways of killing things, various sites run by people who would be banned in Australia because of their religious or political views...

How dare these snobbish aristocratic tossers try to mess with my free time and my thought patterns!

I hate politicians. That's why I haven't voted in nearly 20 years. They're all the same. They're all bastards.

And why will this thing cost $44 million buckeroonies? I bet you it's because they've been lobbied by their big business IT mates to get contracts. So the taxpayer pays private business to censor their own world view.

How ing ridiculous.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Everyone and everything acts in their own self-interest boofhead.
________
Iolitewww.vaporshop.com

[Plan C]

Everyone and everything acts in their own self-interest boofhead.

Well said, however there is a sense of civil duty that I demand of any official regardless of rank.

Please bear in mind that the people who make decisions such as the one in op are supposed to represent our interests, this is what they get paid for.

If this basic requirement is not met then the whole structure of representation, the cornerstone of modern democracy has failed and needs to be rebuilt.

We had better wake up soon.

[boofhead]

Everyone and everything acts in their own self-interest boofhead.

As do I. That's why I don't vote. And that's why I'll read whatever the hell I want on the net and no blasted nanny-moron in a grey suit with a fake smile is going to stop me. I'm 36 years old FFS, not a kid.

Makes a guy want to send a parcel full of Neo-Nazi stuff, pro-terrorist jihad stuff, bestiality stuff (that's banned here I think), bomb-making stuff, how to assassinate people with a pencil stuff, various beheadings and murders in South American prisons with chair legs stuck the deceased's rear-end pics etc....to the politician's wife.

(joke- that would be illegal for such a hypothetical person to do)

[Captain Blackadder]

God this is stupid all Internet Filters are a joke and if it slows down the internet it will be a disaster since we allready have third world standards of Internet.

Also who will decide what constitutes illegal material it is a very shakey moral area so if this had been put in a few years ago when homosexaulity was illegal in Tasmania would all gay related material be blocked heavans above if someone wanted to look up the enola gay.

Anway fellow citizens of the world at least now you know that if all us aussies disappear from TWC that's the reason.