There’s already been some highly visible protests about proposals to try and filter Australia’s Internet feed, but a new survey from Netspace clarifies that opposition to this poorly-thought-out scheme is widespread. Phil Sweeney at Whirlpool reports that almost 80% of customers surveyed by ISP Netspace were opposed to the scheme, and only around a quarter said they would sign up to a clean feed if it was available, whether compulsory or otherwise. While there’s been some speculation that the government will cancel the plans after the trial (using the inevitable performance degradation as an excuse), that’s far from a certainty.
Netspace customers rail against ISP filtering [Whirlpool]A common theme at Saturday’s protests against proposals to censor and filter Australian Internet access (you can check out my on the spot report from the Sydney protest at APC) was the need to continue arguing against the proposals. One important way of doing that is by writing to your local member of Federal parliament. The Electronic Freedom Project is maintaining an interesting Project Score Card, which shows what responses have been received from various politicians. Depressingly, the most common outcome seems to be no response at all, followed by a standard form letter. The wiki also has comprehensive links to other useful resources about the still-sketchy but potentially hugely limiting censorship plans. Electronic Freedom Project
A final reminder that there are protests against proposals to censor Australia’s Internet feed in capital cities across Australia this weekend. Details at the Stop The Clean Feed site.
Amidst the continuing debate about plans to try and censor and filter Australian Internet access, the No Internet Censorship for Australia blog makes a useful point: if implemented as planned, the proposals would actually make it harder to track down people accessing questionable material. Drawing on the example of how Wikipedia editing recently got blocked in the UK because one article contained a questionable image, the blog points out that forcing people through proxy IP addresses makes them much harder to identify:
The process of dutiful law enforcement now has an extra-complicated step where the ISP needs to be contacted and instead of identifying an IP address, attempt to match up the user IP addresses access through the filter to the offensive site – likely matching time and date stamps on both systems and calculating time differences and the like. The law enforcement procedure is more drawn out, more prone to error (including “technicalities” that see actual offenders walk free) and ISPs are given another serving of the increasing public pressure for them to actively participate as enforcers of what is done with the service they provide.
If you find the planned implementation of a so-called “clean feed” questionable, don’t forget there’s a series of protest marches this Saturday.
Law Enforcement Disempowerment Not Just Rhetoric [No Internet Censorship for Australia]As I’ve noted in a story for APC, a series of protests against the government’s “clean feed” Internet proposals are planned for December 13. If you feel like speaking out against this plan, details of the six capital city events can be found on the Stop The Clean Feed site. If you’re not in one of those locations, you can still sign the GetUp petition.
Concerned about the proposal to impose clean feed Internet on all Australians? Activist group GetUp has launched a ‘Save The Net’ campaign to help citizens protest against the plan, including an email petition and a useful factsheet on why the plan is so deeply, deeply flawed.
In the spirit of the infamous Fake Steve Jobs, Fake Stephen Conroy has arrived on Twitter, making a mockery of our Minister for Communications. As Dan Warne reports at APC, the faux feed is actually the work of Electronic Frontiers Australia, as part of their campaign against the government’s clean feed proposal. If you’re opposed to that proposal, it’s a great addition to your Twitter friends.
Say G’day to Fake Steve Conroy [APC]As plans for a government trial of content filtering with selected ISPs firm up, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that we might all get stuck with a degraded Internet service with very little justification in public service terms. Over at APC, I’ve rounded up half-a-dozen arguments for If the thought of your Internet connection being censored at the source bothers you, then then the EFA’s No Clean Feed site is a good place to get more information on campaigning against it.
Top 5 reasons to fight government ISP filtering[APC]
