Australia To Block BitTorrent 674
Kevin 7Kbps writes "Censorship Minister Stephen Conroy announced today that the Australian Internet Filters will be extended to block peer-to-peer traffic, saying, 'Technology that filters peer-to-peer and BitTorrent traffic does exist and it is anticipated that the effectiveness of this will be tested in the live pilot trial.' This dashes hopes that Conroy's Labor party had realised filtering could be politically costly at the next election and were about to back down. The filters were supposed to begin live trials on Christmas Eve, but two ISPs who volunteered have still not been contacted by Conroy's office, who advised, 'The department is still evaluating applications that were put forward for participation in that pilot.' Three days hardly seems enough time to reconfigure a national network."
World of Warcraft and p2p... (Score:5, Interesting)
Ministry of Censorship (Score:5, Interesting)
> Censorship Minister Stephen Conroy announced
What is a "Censorship Minister"? Is there a "Ministry of Censorship" in Australia??
"Censorship Minister?!?" (Score:2, Interesting)
So, like, if I am applying to also become, um, like a "Censorship Minister" somewhere, like, what needs to be on my resume or CV?
Spent college years with a big fat magic marker, blacking out a lot of stuff in the university library?
Maybe he duct-tapped up the mouths of protesting fellow students.
He should least have to pedigree to call himself the "Minister of Information" instead.
A Good Thing? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the sooner an 'important' state does this sort of thing the better.
The current situation is a chaotic cat and mouse game that's gradually playing into the hands of the publishing industry.
If a big state blocks and censors parts of the internet, they can probably make it stick. The result might be an incentive for people to start encrypting data by default, and I kind of think that would be a good thing for the whole world.
Here in the UK the government is up to all sorts of tricks - the RIP Act gives them the power to monitor all internet traffic and store it for up to 2 years. Even your local council can request to see which web sites you've been visiting - no need to involve the police or the courts, just a 'senior official'.
I think there's just not been a good enough reason so far to encrypt more than the bear minimum. This sort of thing might shove things in the right direction...
Australian politicians: Ignorant hypocrits? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:*sigh* (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem with legalizing marijuana now is that we have millions of people in prison who were made criminals under the current draconian drug laws and the prison-for-profit led enforcement of those laws. If marijuana were legalized we would be compelled to release millions of people from prison who are NOW trained to be criminals.
The crime rate would rise, and legal marijuana would be blamed.
So the answer, of course, is not legalize marijuana, pass even stricter laws, and build many more prisons all run by for-profit corporations! We have a depression on, you know. We could hire lots of police and prison guards!
Re:*sigh* (Score:3, Interesting)
What kind of cynical crap was that?
They listen to people, but they also listen to people who can say their point without going on a rant.
BTW I am a techie as well, but I am in the market and have seen the difference in opinion. The problem with techie's is that they talk without actually making sense. They gab, and gab...
Let me give you an example. When oil was peaking at 150 I created a simple to understand powerpoint on how this was a scam and how it needed to be controlled. I sent it to a few senators and it has been downloaded quite a bit. In fact in some senate hearings I heard some of my lingo being said. My point is that I explained the situation in terms of stick people, and easy to digest concepts.
Another example at a recent conference people did not understand why we have this credit crisis. So I created a simple powerpoint with stick people that explains in terms of very simple math on what the problem was. People loved it because they could understand what in the heck was going on.
My point is that techies gab gab gab without making it simple to understand and digest. People want to learn and understand, but they need to be explained in simple terms. I find financial calculations a piece of cake and have no problem creating the derivatives that are causing problems. Yet most people consider this stuff mumbo jumbo and fake. (BTW its not!)
Though I need to explain to you how techies are not getting the point since you just said it.
>> No, I'm pretty sure what makes the world turn can be explained much more satisfactory using physics than economics, that business = all that matters is some sort of universal truth is actually a fairly recent trend..
You took my words literally and though, "oh world is rock turning around, etc..." You are making my point on how techies are snide and cynical. Instead of engaging me in a point you talk about how absolute things are. Well get over it, nothing is absolute. Science and Popper says, "hey this is probably right until it is proven wrong..."
Re:*sigh* (Score:3, Interesting)
After all why should I care about you because all you do is complain, whine, etc.
People put forward working ideas all the time, and get shot down because "Techies don't get the business world." Maybe if the business world was willing to make the effort to meet halfway, people would be more willing to make the effort to work with them. Alas, people complain and whine against any suggestion that politicians ought to know anything at all about what they're passing laws about. Why, if they did, how would any of the special interests manage to get anything done at all?
Re:goodluckwiththat (Score:1, Interesting)
That is a nice conceit but it isn't the case. The reality is that the huge part of the influx only lasts the first month or two after implementing such a network. Whats left after that is manageable and practical. Corporate and school networks aren't the same animals as what general use ISPs provide. The list of things employees absolutely need access to is very definable and those are whitelisted first. What's permissible for users like students is contentious but also definable. Incidentally, the proxies need not block everything. They're configured to block things that have proved to be problems but all is logged since things happen that I haven't thought of.
My traffic stats alone tell me that they aren't "giving up on using it at all". Yes, there are inconveniences. Yes, nobody likes to encounter them. The answer is to be fast and responsive to legitimate (as defined by organization policy) requests.
What isn't manageable is an open ended network full of teenagers one is mandated to keep within acceptable norms. As I've said in another post: public schools aren't libertarian geek fantasy playgrounds. What motivated the implementation of such a network here was flash drives loaded with PortableFirefox and an extension to use a constantly updated list of open proxies. The emergence of Tor and other services designed to facilitate circumvention drove it as well. Without default deny, one is constantly fingerplugging dikes as the kids try one thing after another. The smart-aleck with his custom proxy would have been cheerfully busted here.
Incidentally, it isn't all done with just technology. There is administrative will to come down on those I find trying to use cgi proxies and the like. And I don't care what they do at home. They can very well do their P2P, instant messaging whatever there.
Re:*sigh* (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not just information that "wants to be free." If you're happy with information, then go read a wikipedia page.
But you won't understand the whole "it's not just a bunch of information put onto an optical disc" unless you actually ARE a musician, actor, or whatever. Not a hollywood actor, they don't get ANYTHING =P But when you actually have a product of your hard effort, your imagination, your originality, your motivation, your money, you may think differently about people making it available for free and nobody thinking it's wrong to do that.
A movie is more similar to a car, house, or computer than generic "information." It took money, work, planning, real physical and tangible objects, etc. It just so happens that the product of all of that is digital as opposed to a car, house, or computer.
You may as well claim that web hosting should be free. You may actually think that... until you decide to start a web hosting business.
(for the record, I'm a musician/composer, and while I don't like the RIAA and their tactics, I also understand the need for anti-piracy laws, copyrights, whatever... it may be broken, true, but the solution isn't anarchy, and my music is not just information that wants to be free... unless I want it to be free!)
Look at child porn, sue the government? (Score:4, Interesting)
"OH DEAR GOD! It's child porn! I'm suing the Australian government for failing to protect me as they said they would!"
First they came for... (Score:5, Interesting)
First they came for the child pornography on the internet ... and I did not speak up ... and I did not speak up ... and I did not speak up ... and I did not speak up ... and I did not speak up ... and there is no one left to speak up for me
Then they came for the organized crime on the internet
Then they came to 'protect the children' against 'vulgar images'
Then they came for the illegal warez
Then they came for my bittorrent
Then they came for me
Re:*sigh* (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sorry if you don't like my attitude, but working within the system is, AFAICT, an utter waste of time.
Never let anyone win on walkover. Some fights you may know you will lose beforehand, but at least you can enjoy seeing government officials publically humiliated.
Take a look at the Pirate Party in Sweden. Although I feel the name ought to change to the Privacy Party in order to better reflect it's core values, despite the name, it's momentum is really building. There are "awakenings" happening all over the place. The old party structure try to confine people to the old left-right spectrum, but people are joining solely on the basis of the right to privacy and democratic principles. If you do not have true democracy all other issues are meaningless. For this reason the Pirate Party have members who where formerly liberals, communists, conservatives, "greens" and nationalists who value democracy higher than any other issue.
For every privacy invading law the current government have put in front of the parliament, the Pirate Party have gained a new large batch of angry voters and the established parties have lost voters.
NOTE: The Pirate Party has now passed the Environmental Party in membership numbers. It will reach the European parliament in the 2009 election and I do hope that Pirate Party members from other European countries will make it there as well.
Re:Filter != Block (Score:3, Interesting)
If they try to filter P2P based on the content of the files, then people are just going to enable encryption by default on all P2P connections (that will take all of two hours). Then what do you think they will do? Block P2P entirely. They'll have no choice - it will be the only way to save face.
Letter sent to Stephen Conroy (Score:4, Interesting)
Subj: Please do not block all peer-to-peer traffic
For one thing, World of Warcraft (a passion for our entire family) depends on P2P for the distribution of updates.
And where I have absolutely no problem with suppressing child pornography, I believe that in the long term censorship by filtration is not the answer. It's never the answer, in a free society -- no offence, mate, but you're the government and I don't entirely trust you. Once you start filtering content for good reasons, you'll soon be filtering content for bad ones. The answer is to find the perpetrators and take them out. I believe your efforts should be directed toward finding the source of the trash and taking it down, not slowing down the pipes for the rest of us. (name + address) IT consultant since 1969 Husband and devoted father of two
Re:*sigh* (Score:5, Interesting)
That's called "tyranny". If I want to spend my election day sitting in my recliner, drinking beer, and watching the Buffy marathon, that's my choice. Who the hell if the government to dictate I MUST be at a certain place at a certain time?!?!? Fuck 'em. Normally I vote but if such a ridiculous law passed in my state, I would stay home. It would be my way of protesting that it's my body, my mind, and my liberty. Nobody owns me. I'm not a slave.
No, its not tyranny. Its your fucking responsibility as a citizen. Have you got such a warped sense of perspective that you think mandatory voting is anywhere near akin to tyranny! Deal with it - personally I would be for people losing citizenship if they fail to vote.
Tho +1 for mentioning Buffy!