Go Back   Old Project Avalon Forum (ARCHIVE) > Project Avalon Forum > What’s Going Down > News And Updates

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 12-24-2008, 01:00 PM   #1
Tez
Retired Avalon Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Where there is light
Posts: 138
Default Internet filtering plan may extend to peer-to-peer traffic

Internet filtering plan may extend to peer-to-peer traffic, says Stephen Conroy

By Andrew Ramadge, Technology Reporter NEWS.com.au
December 22, 2008 05:52pm

THE Federal Government's controversial internet censorship scheme may extend to filter more online traffic than was first thought, Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy revealed today.
In a post on his department's blog, Senator Conroy today said technology that could filter data sent directly between computers would be tested as part of the upcoming live filtering trial.
"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," Senator Conroy said.
Peer-to-peer file-sharing technology is the most common way for computer users to share video, picture and music files over the internet.
It was previously thought the Government's filtering plan would be restricted to traffic on the "world wide web" – the channel through which users view websites like news.com.au.
Senator Conroy revealed the plan to trial peer-to-peer filtering technology in a reply to critical comments made on the Digital Economy Future Directions blog launched earlier this month.
The blog was launched to encourage public input on the future of Australia's digital economy, but has so far been saturated with comments attacking Senator Conroy over the Government's filtering plan.

Senator Conroy addressed the level of critical feedback in his post and said he had been following discussion of the plan on social networking websites such as Twitter.
"I'm aware that this proposal has attracted significant debate and criticism – on this blog and at other places in the blogosphere," Senator Conroy said.
"I'm following the debate at sites like Whirlpool and GetUp and on Twitter at #nocleanfeed."

The filtering scheme has made headlines around the world in the The New York Times and British newspapers and was the target of protests held in major cities across the country earlier this month.

Live pilot trial
A live trial of filtering technology is scheduled to begin this week, but internet service providers have so far been kept in the dark over the details.
Less than a week before the trial was due to begin, participating ISPs Optus and iiNet said they had not been told if their applications had been accepted.

An Optus spokesperson today said the company had still not been notified of the status of its application.
"We still have not received notification about whether or not our proposal has been accepted, however our proposal does not include peer-to-peer filtering," the spokesperson said.

Comment is being sought from iiNet.

'Not like China'
Despite announcing the live pilot trial would likely include filtering peer-to-peer traffic, Senator Conroy rejected accusations that the scheme was similar to internet censorship in countries such as China.

"Freedom of speech is fundamentally important in a democratic society and there was never any suggestion that the Australian Government would seek to block political content," Senator Conroy said.

"In this context, claims that the Government's policy is analogous to the approach taken by countries such as Iran, China and Saudi Arabia are not justified."

Senator Conroy said the internet filter would be in-step with existing methods to censor books, films and video games.

"Australian society has always accepted that there is some material which is not acceptable, particularly for children," he said.

"That is why we have the National Classification Scheme for classifying films, computer games, publications and online content."

"Australian ISPs are already subject to regulation that prohibits the hosting of certain material based upon the Scheme.

"All the Government is now seeking to do is to examine how technology can assist in filtering internationally-hosted content."

SECRET lists of websites banned in two countries have been leaked online, as the Federal Government delays a live trial of its controversial internet filtering scheme.

A list of 3863 website addresses banned in Denmark was published yesterday by a whistleblower group and is believed to contain links to illegal material including child pornography.

The department of Broadband Minister Stephen Conroy has previously compared the Government's filtering plan to "successful" programs in countries including Denmark.

Earlier this week a list of 1203 websites banned in Thailand for political reasons was published by the same group.

It included hundreds of YouTube videos as well as blogs, cartoons and an article in the Economist magazine banned for reasons of "lese majeste", or criticising the King.

Tez is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-24-2008, 01:25 PM   #2
alyscat
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Washington state
Posts: 743
Default Re: Internet filtering plan may extend to peer-to-peer traffic

Yeah, right, "we have no plans to stifle freedom of speech." Tell me another one.
alys
alyscat is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
internet

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 10:01 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Project Avalon