Australian Idol And ISP Censorship 335
fembots writes "Teenage fans of the new Australian Idol Casey Donovan rushed to the homepage of a dead gay porn icon with the same name when a URL was advertised in major newspapers without the .au country code. ISP BigPond took matters to its own hand by redirecting millions of its subscribers' requests back to the Idol's website. On top of that, BigPond lodged a formal complaint with the Australian Broadcasting Authority on the basis Mr Donovan's site may contain X-rated material or material that would be denied classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification."
I'd say... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'd say... (Score:5, Insightful)
Does this make BigPond an "editor" for their users, thus nullifying the notion of their operation as a common carrier?
Re:I'd say... (Score:3, Insightful)
I absolutely believe if it was someone else's mistake, then they wouldn't have bothered with any of this.
Yes and no.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:3, Insightful)
(The choice page is a good suggestion, though. That probably would have been a better alternative.)
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:5, Informative)
Please wait, you are being redirected to www.caseydonovan.com.au, the home page of Casey Donovan, the new Australian Idol.
Please note that there is a US site with a similar address which contains adult content which is not suitable for minors. If you are over 18 and do not want to go to Casey Donovan's Australian Idol Site, please click here now www.caseydonovan.com
Oh - fair enough *gets off high horse* (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:3, Interesting)
The redirecting link (Score:3, Informative)
here is the actual redirecting link [144.135.18.91]
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:2, Interesting)
I would agree with the other compromise - redirect to a site stating the error, and proving the correct link - this will both educate people to the correct link, and allow those who want to visit the gay site to be able to do so (though I think that is illegal under Aussie law anyway, isn't it?)
To an extent, it is also their own fault for having the
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:5, Insightful)
If an advertiser can't advertise correctly, maybe they suck at life and shouldn't be in the advertising business? They only had to do one thing, and they failed.
-Jesse
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:3, Insightful)
If you got on the school bus to go to school, but the driver had a wrong address and brought them to the red light crack whore district, would you want the bus to stop there and turf the kids out anyway?
Part of the problem with the web is that you don't know where you're going until you've got there, that and the mor
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Last time I registered an address, I checked the corresponding
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:5, Funny)
You entered caseydonovan.com.
Due to a printing error, it is likely you really want caseydonovan.com.au. You won't bother reading this anyway - nobody ever does, they always click "yes" anyhow. So why we've gone to the hassle of setting it up I don't know.
Are you sure?
YES [caseydonovan.com] NO [caseydonovan.com.au]
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:5, Informative)
What we have here is a precedent where an ISP has decided not to show you the page you asked for, but rather the page they thought you should look at - and without telling you.
*cut*
They did infact tell you exactly what was happening. I am a Bigpond customer and they presented you with a nice clear page saying that you are being redirected to the idol site. It also says if you REALLY wanted to see the porn stars site, than click here. You only had about 3 seconds to read it all and click, but you still had the opportunity.
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:2, Interesting)
This cuts both ways: suppose I am a fan of that idol guy (so I know his name) and I guess his domain name, assuming that it ends in .com.au (as most .au domains I know do)... In that case, Bigpond is now offering me a link to the porn stars site which I would never have found otherwise!
Ok, I admit, it's a
Re:Yes and no.. (Score:3, Interesting)
This is the same thing the anti-abortion camp pushes in the USA. Trying to get doctors to present all sorts of information and extensive questioning to 'discourage' the practice.
I know its not what you were thinking, but its a slippery slope.
Re:Yes, precedent is key, mod parent up (Score:3, Insightful)
Beyond that, I feel sorry for BigPond. They had a tough problem (not caused by them) to solve, and no matter what solution they picked (redirect silently, redirect with warning, do nothing), they're going to get flack for it.
Re:I'd say... (Score:3, Insightful)
The complaint is indeed one thing. But the redirection is not a sensible compromise, but a violation of core internet protocols. They messed up once with the wrong ad, and once again with the reaction. On the "three strikes" theory, they've got one to go before their pipe should be c
Re:I'd say... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'd say... (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, a direct redirection without any choice in the matter would be way over the top, but a redirection implemented this way seems quite reasonable.
himi
Paranoia (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not a desirable thing but I subscribe to the cock-up (for want of a less apposite phrase) theory on this one. No-one's getting stiffed (ditto), its just an horrendous accident.
Having said that, by own sensibilities mean I'm far more offended by Simon Cowell than I am by the goatse.cx guy.
Re:Paranoia (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems to me that if the Casey Donovan site was paying by traffic they really shouldn't be upset that they don't have to fork over the cash for THAT bandwith bill.
Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Interesting)
Should the Ad agency be liable for the american site's bandwidth bill, in this case? Assuming they did get a huge bill, it would be due to an error from the original advertising agency. On the one hand, the american site is open to anyone to visit. On the other hand, someone else, through misinformation, directed a huge amount of traffic to their site.
I can't say I have an opinion one way or another. It's analogous to telemarketing or spamming, in some sense - you have a publicly available way to be contacted, but overuse or inappropriate use can be a big imposition.
No. (Score:2)
But it is ultimately the site owners' duty to pay the bandwidth bill. The bandwidth provider doesn't care how the traffic was directed to your site, and whether it was wanted or not. At no point does the ad agency enter into that contract.
If they can get any money back by suing for damages, I suppose that's the fairest outcome.
Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Paranoia (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Paranoia (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyone who enters a URL and get directed to a different website than that URL belongs to is being hurt.
Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Informative)
Indeed, and it is also worth pointing out that had they not done this, then someones hosting bill could have become horribly expensive or their entire site shut down because it's reached its allocated bandwidth.
If it was my site wrongly pointed to in an ad, I've far rather than the whole of Austrialia were redirected for a couple of months rather than find myself on the recieving end of a huge bill or everyone else get inconvenianced by a completely inaccessable website.
Re:Paranoia (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Paranoia (Score:2)
What if Verisign decided that people really wanted all typo domains to go to their special search page...oh wait, they already did -- it was called Sitefinder. How is that any different from BigPond's redirection? Verisign claims that the majority of theis customers like Sitefinder, just like BigPond's customers. Hmm....
Re:Paranoia (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Paranoia (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Paranoia (Score:2)
But other than that, that's the right solution. Especially given that otherwise the target audience of the idol side won't know that they are using a wrong URI and will just hit the gay porn site at some later time when they try to connect again
Re:Paranoia (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Paranoia (Score:5, Informative)
Please wait, you are being redirected to www.caseydonovan.com.au, the home page of Casey Donovan, the new Australian Idol.
Please note that there is a US site with a similar address which contains adult content which is not suitable for minors. If you are over 18 and do not want to go to Casey Donovan's Australian Idol Site, please click here now www.caseydonovan.com
Re:Paranoia (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Insightful)
How many people, you think, who have nothing against gays, still get nauseated from looking at pictures of guys porking each other up the arse?
Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Insightful)
If they actually have nothing against gays, then I would say the number is zero. Feeling intense disgust just by glancing at a picture of a common sex act between two men is something. It's like people who say "I've nothing against blacks/asians/hispanics/jews/women/gays, but [insert bigoteed statement here]."
Re:I think khrtt is trying to differentiate... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, and looking at a picture isn't 'participation.' If you're literally nauseated by the very concept of man-on-man anal sex (which, bluntly, isn't that mechanically different from hetrosexual vaginal penetration, let alone hetrosexual anal sex) then maybe you're not as tolerant as you think, even if some of your friends are gay. (Again, you don't have to go far to find biased people who proclaim that they can't be biased against X because some of
Re:Paranoia (Score:3, Insightful)
Bzzt. Wrong. Look at the entire post again:
And they managed to screw up even further. Read that text, and imagine you're an innocent (horny) teenager who initially wanted to go to the Idol site. But what's this ? "there is a US site with a similar address which contains adult content which is not suitable for minors". Wow ! Take me there man ! [clicky] Ewwwwwww ! That's GAY ! [cue millions of (male) teenagers gettin
Re:Paranoia (Score:2)
Brasil (Score:2)
ITOH, our universities and research institutions have the right to have
Re:Paranoia (Score:2, Redundant)
I do not like censorship... and there's nothing illegal about a gay porn star's website. However, helping people recognize a legitimate error would be ok.
Blind redirection is not an acceptable alternative in my eyes.
MadCow.
Re:Paranoia (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Paranoia (Score:2)
Re:Paranoia (Score:5, Funny)
I firmly agree. Not to be too rigid, but I've taken a long, hard look at this and come to the conclusion that the redirection really is ok.
Even though the newspaper blew it with the bad URL in their spread, I think it was fine for BigPond to ramrod this solution. I'm sure it makes all their partners upset, but they had to suck it up, go for the glory, hole up in their bunkers and make the change.
I just wish you wouldn't have put all those double entendres in your post. Really, that was almost offensive.
BigPong = Telstra (Score:5, Interesting)
Hence it's less suprising that the ISP arm of their company reacts to minimise the damage, rather than an independent ISP doing this out of goodwill.
Re:BigPong = Telstra (Score:2, Interesting)
Big Pond (Score:2, Interesting)
If not, it sure is scummy.
Re:Big Pond (Score:2)
CRIMES ACT 1914 - SECT 85ZD
Wrongful delivery of communications
A person shall not intentionally cause a communication in the course of telecommunications carriage to be received by a person or carriage service other than the person or service to whom it is directed.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 1 year.
Cat got your...? (Score:5, Funny)
The same source added that "heads will roll" over the incident.
"Frightenly large full frontal nude porn" and "heads will roll" all in the same sentence.
*ouch*.
Re:Cat got your...? (Score:2)
"But we're still feeling the pain," Middleton said.
huh... (Score:5, Funny)
Censorship? (Score:2)
If you don't want your ISP doing things like this then don't use a big mainstream one that caters to the great unwashed masses.
Another Big Brother (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Another Big Brother (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Another Big Brother (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, there may have been a handful of people denied their man-porn for a few hours, but they will have been in the vast minority. These were exceptional circumstances, and seeing this as a step towards BigBrother-dom is overreacting IMO.
Basically BigPond stopped little kiddies from being exposed to pr0n (as well as saving their own faces, see my earlier post), which is Good Thing (TM); though one could debate the relative qualities of what they viewed instead
*Casey Donovan (the man)'s estate excluded, perhaps
Re:Another Big Brother (Score:2)
There _is_ a big warning about what the site is about, how you should only click through if you are over 18 etc. etc.
No little kiddies with half a brain would have actually been exposed to porn as a result of this _unless_ they actually wanted to see it (and if the kiddies want to find porn on the internet they will anyway).
What they are doing is abusing the DNS (I presume that's how they did it - might be proxy I guess if they enforce on
Re:Another Big Brother (Score:3, Insightful)
"virtually everyone's"
"best interests"
"vast minority" (oxymoron?)
These are all scary terms to be throwing around. Especially when we add another scary term "precedence". it's tempting to say oh, it's gay porn - of course we should redirect, but if we set a precedent, then a commercial company can start redirecting us with opt-out rather than opt-in clicks.
Who's got an ISP with Republican/Democrat/People's progressive party for democratic Communism leanings? Or owne
Re:Another Big Brother (Score:2)
I don't know about you, but I would prefer a business making decisions like this to the government. At least the business can't throw you in jail (or worse) if you speak out against them. All other things being equal, it's much easier to overthrow a business than it is a government.
**Note**
Yes I saw the post farther
No link??? (Score:3, Funny)
For the children (Score:5, Interesting)
Kids are tougher than you think and changing heaven and earth for them isn't necessarily in their best interest.
Re:For the children (Score:3, Insightful)
Afghanistan has an entire generation of warlord children out there trying to figure out what this peace crap is all about.
Just because they *can* handle it doesn't mean they should have to handle it. I don't want my kids having to experience t
Why then (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you allow them to roam the streets at night without supervision? Sorry, Charlie, but your kids are going to eventually experience "the stress of life" and "porn," too.
As a parent, you have a choice: either teach them how to deal with that stuff at an early enough age so that they get a good education from you or you can shelter them so they don't have to learn about it until they get out on their own. We call the latter the "Freeway to Failure(TM) method of parenting."
Re:For the children (Score:2)
In the end, the little teeny-boppers got to their intended website, and a few fans of gay fetish porn were inconvenienced for a short time.
From a business point of view, it probably wasn't a tough choice to make.
SSCCATAGAPP (Score:3, Funny)
(it's a Simpsons reference)
Re:For the children (Score:3, Insightful)
As an alternate view ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Frankly, i think the long term benefits far outweight the short term 'loss of rights' issues.
Re:As an alternate view ... (Score:2)
People take the absolutist view that it shouldn't be "censored" because when things like this happen and nobody says anything, at some point it may be a site with political views contrary to the management of the company... or Planned Parenthood sites redirected to the Operation Rescue site.
The press and the people need to take notice and assure "faceless" corporations that we notice, and we ca
Am I reading this correctly? (Score:5, Insightful)
They however cock up: they fail to publish the
And after all these blunders, they file a complaint because a website exists, with a -similar- name, about a dead Gay Porn star being indecent?
So they -steal- the clickies to the dead porn star, claiming it really, probably, is their clickies...
How weird is that? I must be misunderstanding this article.. yeah?
If I was the Dead Gay Porn Star, id sue BACK, for re-directing -my- traffic to -their- website.
Thats like stealing my mail, claiming the sender really did not want to send it me. That might be true, but how does that justify stealing someone elses mail, or traffic?
"/Dread"
Re:Am I reading this correctly? (Score:2)
Re:Am I reading this correctly? (Score:2)
"Damn. I'm dead."
It Might not be a porn site, but ... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:It Might not be a porn site, but ... (Score:2)
Dude.. That is SCARY. She [caseydonovan.com.au] really does look like Ron Jeremy [imdb.com] without the mustache! How very appropriate that she has an androgenous name: "Casey".
A similar but worse Canadian SNAFU (Score:5, Funny)
One card of interest warned about the dangers of internet strangers and had an image of a snake peeking out of a computer.
Now New Brunswick is an offical bi-lingual province (English/French) and all of the cards had to be bi-lingual. So to cut on production costs they would use words that where the same or similar in french and english when possible.
So back to the dangers of the internet. This card had the innocent looking url anaconda.com to go along with the snake in the internet theme(if it's the same as it was I don't recommend for work viewing). Well the url went to a nice S&M site with a very umm colorful splash page.
The big ISP/Telco here immediately blocked the site at the request of the government.
Personally I love these PR nightmares for the entertainment value.
sort of offtopic, but funny (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not really sure what my point was, but I thought this was somewhat related.
people make mistakes with url's all the time- hell, Cheney even did it during the debate with factcheck.org [factcheck.org]
and then there's always the whitehouse [whitehouse.com] site that's been screwing up kids, parents and teachers for 7 years
of course none of this changes the fact that the isp should keep their fucking hands out of what their client host as long as it's not spam or child porn.
It would have been a more enjoyable story.... (Score:2)
What do you want to bet that.... (Score:2)
I mean, what better way to solidify the name in the eyes of teenage girls than to have news story after news story directing them to -- or explaining how people were being mistakenly directed to -- a website which features an image of a large penis (and the male human it's attached to).
Very clever... and to top it off, Telstra BigPond get to be seen as making the interne
Just what we wanted... (Score:2)
I am currently posting this on his home computer after being escorted of works premise with p45[1] in hand[2]
[1] P45 - in the uk a slip to say "you're fired" (has tax details etc.. on it).
[2] My excuse and I'm sticking to it
With tongue firmly in cheek
Jaj
Dear Telstra (Score:5, Funny)
One step too far (Score:2)
Can you feel it coming? (Score:2)
The Liberal Conscience: "While we believe we must preserve the freedoms of the Internet we also think some kinds of content are too objectionable and to
Blame the person who chose the original URL (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Blame the person who chose the original URL (Score:2)
Rather than
it may have been better to go for
much like nz, uk and others.
Redirect (Score:2)
Formal Complaint (Score:2)
Because the site is R-rated, instead of X-rated, and hosted in the United States, it cannot be taken down or blocked."
Egg on Telstra's face & damage limitation, that's all I'm drawing from this at the moment.
What The Fuck are they talking about? (Score:4, Informative)
THERE IS NO PHOTO.
This is pretty fucking stupid.
Re:What The Fuck are they talking about? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What The Fuck are they talking about? (Score:4, Informative)
Is it factcheck.com or factcheck.org? (Score:2)
crossing the streams (Score:2)
Doubly-advertized 1-800 numbers (Score:2, Interesting)
"The number you have dialed, 1-800-nnn-nnnn, has been erroniously advertised to two different companies. To reach company A, press 1. To reach company B, dial the correct number, 1-800-abc-defg."
An earlier respondant suggested the same idea for web pages that were mistakenly advertised.
Re:Automated domain registrations (Score:5, Informative)
whitehouse has been a pornographic magazine for over 20 years, their website is a natural extension of that hence the
Re:Automated domain registrations (Score:5, Funny)
Re:For the love of 16 bit computing... (Score:2)
Well, at least they do extend them.
Re:The funny thing is... (Score:2)
Yeah, totally dude!! All singers should look like Britney Spears!! After all, who cares about the music?
Personally, I find this interesting. The UK one was won by a huge chick a year or two ago as well. Perhaps the public is trying to send a message that we are bored with the Britney's.
Re:I don't which is more obscene (Score:3, Interesting)
FFS it was more fun to get drunk & have a bbq
Re:so (Score:3, Insightful)
In case you hadn't realised, ".com" is not a US TLD, it is an international TLD.
Plenty of countries use ".net.(country code)" or ".com.(country code)". Get over it.