Comments on: Australian Government To Censor Our Internet

By: Kandice Mccaffree

Kandice Mccaffree — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:36:18 +0000

While I wasdoing some browsing and noticed your site looks a bit confusedin my K-meleon internet browser. I think I’m the only one still using it….

By: Heartburn Home Remedy

Heartburn Home Remedy — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:27:15 +0000

After reading the article, I feel that I really need more information on the topic. Can you share some more resources please?

By: fluffy mcfluffenstein

fluffy mcfluffenstein — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 10:13:45 +0000

What about the good effects. Can you think of a 8 year old kid trying out the internet and accidentally going to the wrong site, say for example, a very graphic site (a bad graphic site). That kid will be scarred for the rest of his life! “Oh no it’s slowing down the internet!” and saving a lot of future problems. Seriously, don’t always think about all the negative effects, and don’t have a “my way or highway” set of mind, thats why we have racism and hate in this world.

By: Politics (Firewall of Australia) « Matts Mind

Politics (Firewall of Australia) « Matts Mind — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:00:34 +0000

[...] My mate Richard Giles has written eloquently on the topic. [...]

By: CW

CW — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:34:29 +0000

Thanks for this, Richard!

By: skribe

skribe — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:56:40 +0000

Any govt that trots out drunk driving as an example of education is seriously flapping. Consider that there are approx 1600 road deaths on Australian roads each year of which between one-third and one-half are directly related to alcohol. That’s 500-800 people die each and every year because someone drinks and drives. Obviously the govts measures aren’t working, and neither will this clusterfuck of a filtering system.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:40:32 +0000

Thanks for the links and comments, Tim.

Your “circumvention” point was discussed by the AWIA committee, and we agree that there is a minority that will be able to circumvent the filter.

However, the majority will not have any idea of how to work around the filter, and I’d prefer to focus on the majority in this instance. If the majority have no choice, and get filtered, then from a community point of view this violates our freedom.

By: David L Morris

David L Morris — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:40:31 +0000

This sort of internet censorship is both laughable and worrying at the same time. I have heard US podcasters laughing at us over this, and quite rightly too. We all know that it won’t work. It won’t stop the real problems, while it will at some point inconvenience every one else.
Like DRM is will have its problems (even dangers – remember the Sony root kit), where false positives will stop a seeing material we should be able to see, perhaps even need to see, and won’t stop any of the issues the proponents of this nutty idea want to stop.

My guess is that Labor have some other legislation they want passed and are doing this to keep Steve Fielding happy, after all, they are only going to upset a few geeks, so who cares! A back room deal that at least one of them said they wouldn’t do . The alternative, that it is actually real labor policy, is even worse. It would tell us, firstly, that they are incompetent and clueless, and secondly, they are heavily influenced by the (oddly right wing) religious views of Kevin Rudd and others. We might as well have the country run by Brendan Nelson.

By: Ben Cuzza

Ben Cuzza — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:30:27 +0000

When you think of it in terms of numbers than percentages, the facts get even more staggering. 4% of innocuous websites show up as false positives in tests, so if there are for example 1.5 trillion web pages on the internet, 60,000,000,000 (yes, sixty BILLION) web pages will show up as false positives. I know that the numbers and logic behind that aren’t entirely correct, but this is barely the time for rational thought and argument! After all, according to Senator Conroy, anyone who argues against this is a closet pedophile. Obviously. That is a brilliant stance to take in the face of pretty much every Australian internet user wanting to see him swinging from the business end of a noose.

Now if SomeGen would just finish editing Leetbix and post it, we’ll get to se my utterly immature view on why the whole deal is bad.

By: Tim Bennett

Tim Bennett — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:24:35 +0000

Hi Richard, You might want to direct your readers to NoCleanFeed.com, EFA's campaign site against the filter. Another article out of the Herald today shows that minority parties with political clout will try to influence the filter's content. I don't agree with you that 'there will be nothing we can do about it', since the first product of this policy's implementation will be an aggressive circumvention publicity campaign. Even if discussing circumvention is illegal, we possess the means and the know-how to do it untraceably and unblockably.