A Sad Day For the New Zealand Internet 221
Posted
by
timothy
from the if-you-can't-read-this-you-know-why dept.
from the if-you-can't-read-this-you-know-why dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Another one bites the dust, as New Zealand's Internet filter stealthily goes live with two smaller ISPs, and three of the largest already rumoured to have signed up to do the same. However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is apparently 'committed to helping people to circumvent government internet filtering,' so perhaps the USA will launch an invasion to free the poor downtrodden Kiwis from their own evil government?" Clever of one of the acquiescing ISPs to have named itself "Watchdog."
Two words (Score:3, Informative)
Encryption
Proxies
Re:Um why (Score:4, Informative)
It's not voluntary.
If they don't their government will intervene.
Re:Two words (Score:4, Informative)
Dropping connections that want to hanshake encryptions / look encrypted.
IP-bans of proxies; general useleness of open proxies; ease of proxy detections.
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Do not solve social problem with technical means, it will never work (see: drm).
NZ Filtering FAQ (Score:5, Informative)
If you want to know more about it, check the NZ Internet Filtering FAQ at: http://techliberty.org.nz/issues/internet-filtering/filtering-faq/ [techliberty.org.nz]
Re:Democracy (Score:3, Informative)
We have two major parties in NZ (Labour and National).
The filter process was started when Labour was in power.
It's now gone live while National is in power.
At least the Greens are against it! Oh, pity they only get ~5%.
Re:Um why (Score:4, Informative)
I'm not saying you're wrong, but could you source this? It's not in the article.
I'm going to go ahead and say he's wrong. Pulled from this page, it was linked to in another comment [techliberty.org.nz]:
The scheme is currently voluntary for the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) as there is no law to force them to use it.
I'm hoping that this causes non-cooperating ISPs to start advertising the fact to attract customers. That, and that this falls flat on it's face and injects some sense into the Australian filter plan.
Re:NZ Filtering FAQ (Score:5, Informative)
Everyone should read this.
So far, so good.
But these are bad:
Don't forget us brits (Score:3, Informative)
And don't forget us brits [iwf.org.uk] too.
Re:It's just stupidity and ignorance of technology (Score:0, Informative)
Bloody Aussies... check your facts next time.
As any Kiwi could tell you, sheep numbers are plummeting with the dairy boom. 32 million sheep and 5.8 million dairy cows in 2009.
I have to agree that the government does some stupid things sometimes though. Mostly when they try to copy Australia.
Re:NZ 2nd least corrupt government?! (Score:3, Informative)
this has very little to do with the government, they recommend that isp's enable it, but it is not compulsory (as of yet) many of the isp's that are agreeing to implement it are ones generally regarded as companies that like to keep a strong-hold on their customers, many of the other isp's are relatively small ones that still value their image to consumers
Re:Um why (Score:5, Informative)
In the UK it was recently reported that the government will not buy services from any ISP that does not implement the IWF blacklist.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article7055882.ece [timesonline.co.uk]
And in the USA, the Minnesota Senate is considering a proposal to prevent state employees staying in hotels that offers "violent" pornography.
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=843624 [kare11.com]
Re:Two words (Score:3, Informative)
If you allow HTTPS site you can't block SSH tunneling.
They don't need to block every https site. They block a list of named sites, and that list grows over time. The police add pedo sites to the list. Other agencies add other sites that they deem "inappropriate". The IWF maintain such a list and governments say it's good because it's targeting child porn sites. But there are also lists maintained by various governments, and they often filter for political sites too. It's impossible to run properly effective filtering by algorithm. So there will be lists involved. But who maintains the lists?
Re:It's just stupidity and ignorance of technology (Score:2, Informative)
As any Kiwi could tell you, sheep numbers are plummeting with the dairy boom. 32 million sheep and 5.8 million dairy cows in 2009.
As a Kiwi, I wasn't aware of that. Not all of us obsess over the sheep population.
Re:Don't forget us brits (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Democracy (Score:3, Informative)
Perhaps try this: http://pirateparty.org.nz/ [pirateparty.org.nz]
Re:More to the point (Score:2, Informative)