Australian Communications Minister and Senator Stephen Conroy has continued to make waves as his crusade to filter out the Internet from the evils of porn, online poker, religion, YouTube links and political incorrectness continues.
Now there is a war of words between Conroy and Internet Service Provider, iiNet, that has made headlines.
From iTWire:
"The public slanging between the Communications Minister and iiNet is hard to find a precedent for in the ICT industry. The CEO of iiNet, Michael Malone, has told iTWire and a number of other media sources quite openly that he believes Senator Conroy is the worst Communications Minister ever and described him as incompetent.
"Malone also told iTWire last year that iiNet would participate in the then upcoming filter trial just to show the world how easy it would be to break. "A 16 year old could crack it in five minutes," he said.
This week, the Communication Minister made some unusual - and some say slanderous - remarks against iiNet while speaking at a public telecoms conference.
From iTWire:
"He described iiNet's claim that it didn't know what material its customers were downloading as "stunning" and he likened iiNet's defence strategy to a "Yes Minister episode".
"Both remarks made by a Federal Government Minister about an ongoing court case have raised the ire of not only iiNet but members of the legal community as well as the opposition.
"It has been suggested that iiNet could have a case for pursuing Senator Conroy for defamation but even worse for the Minister there is a possibility his remarks could be deemed as contempt of court."
Conroy has faced severe criticism for his Internet censorship policies from ISPs, network administrators, some children's welfare groups, the Liberal party and the Greens. While initially promoted as a way to protect children from child pornography, the censorship policy has been extended to include a much broader range of material, including sites depicting drug use, crime, sex, cruelty, violence or "revolting and abhorrent phenomena" that "offend against the standards of morality". In addition, surveys have revealed strong public opposition to the policy. A survey conducted by Netspace showed only 13.6% agreed that the government should make filtering mandatory, and 78.9% disagreed. Conroy proposes the ACMA control the filtering.
On 19 March 2009 it was reported that ACMA's blacklist of banned sites had been leaked online, and had been published by Wikileaks (link). Conroy described the leak and publication of the blacklist as "grossly irresponsible" and that it undermined efforts to improve "cyber safety". He said that ACMA was investigating the incident and considering a range of possible actions including referral to the Australian Federal Police, and that Australians involved in making the content available would be at "serious risk of criminal prosecution". Wikileaks replied that they will refer any matter to discover their sources to the Swedish Constitutional Police (under whose jurisdiction Wikileaks is published) and pursue extradition charges if it is found such persons have breached their sources' fundamental rights to anonymity.
Stephen Conroy had not faced an interview about the issue for at least six months prior to him appearing on the ABC show 'Q&A' on March 26 2009, and the SBS show 'Insight' on March 31 2009, where he defended the policy in front of critics and supporters of the policy. (Credit: Gambling911).
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Saturday, April 04, 2009
Friday, April 03, 2009
Conroy Backtracks on Internet Censorship Policy - Gambling911 - 2nd April 2009
The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy has been clarifying more details on his Internet censorship policy.
The Australian community has spoken loud and clear and the vast majority do not want it.
On SBS TV Insight many parents were interviewed and agreed that the ultimate protection for a child in relation to the Internet is a good parent.
It's also widely understood that criminals who would use the Internet for illegal acts such as child pornography would use peer to peer or other ways for distribution, not methods which would be picked up by the ACMA blacklist.
Yesterday another industry insider advised that Betfair is still on the blacklist. Again, I don't have the list so I don't know this to be 100 percent. I can however confirm that the following link was posited on the CAP Forum (but I haven't clicked on it in case the spooks are watching. I don't want the link showing up in my browsing history... the spooks have me paranoid now).
Check out the new leaks here
Greg Tingle, www.mediaman.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Politics
The Australian community has spoken loud and clear and the vast majority do not want it.
On SBS TV Insight many parents were interviewed and agreed that the ultimate protection for a child in relation to the Internet is a good parent.
It's also widely understood that criminals who would use the Internet for illegal acts such as child pornography would use peer to peer or other ways for distribution, not methods which would be picked up by the ACMA blacklist.
Yesterday another industry insider advised that Betfair is still on the blacklist. Again, I don't have the list so I don't know this to be 100 percent. I can however confirm that the following link was posited on the CAP Forum (but I haven't clicked on it in case the spooks are watching. I don't want the link showing up in my browsing history... the spooks have me paranoid now).
Check out the new leaks here
Greg Tingle, www.mediaman.com.au
Media Man Australia Profiles
Politics
Internet Filtering Continues to be Hot Topic in Australia - Gambling911 - 31st March 2009
The coverage related to Internet filtering in Australia continues to be a hot topic. A report aired just the other night with some 377 plus people commenting on what was transpiring. As Gambling911.com has been reporting, the Australian government, led by Communications Director Stephen Conroy, has been working to filter some 2000 plus websites they claim were "indecent" but as it turns out, a number of those sites were related to online poker, religion and politics.
One individual wrote:
"The fact that the black list already contains politically controversial sites -of religions with which the government does not agree- should be taken as a sign of things to come. That information on euthanasia has been blocked is fairly hypocritical. It was legal in the Northern Territory under 15 years ago. The filter only covers http traffic - not peer to peer traffic. Anyone hosting illegal content over http is advertising their location. Surely distributors of illegal content would use P2P."
Another had this to say:
"Both during his appearance on Insight and Q&A last week, Conroy described it as a "Genuine conundrum" that blacklists have to be secret in order to work - therefore disenabling legitimate sites from knowing and protesting their blacklisting. I don't really see how it is a "Conundrum". If the sites are blocked, then supposedly people won't be able to access them ANYWAY. So what's wrong with transparency? And those who really want to view illegal sites will already know of them and can bypass."
Our man on the street, Greg Tingle, had this to say:
"I'm an adult and if I wish to watch adult porno that should be my business only. If I want to visit a poker or online casino website to place a bet, so be it. If I want to link to Betfair, I should have every right to. Here's a movie to watch, John Carpenter's 'They Live'. Part science fiction thriller and part black comedy, the film echoed contemporary fears of a declining economy, within a culture of greed and conspicuous consumption common among Americans in the 1980s. In They Live, the ruling class within the monied elite are in fact aliens managing human social affairs through the use of subliminal media advertising and the control of economic opportunity. Rudd, any bells ringing here. Liberal, you have found your next election winner I believe. The way this is going Australia is heading for a riot which will make Cronulla, Maroubra, Thailand, China and France look like child's play. Rudd and Conroy, it's happening on your watch. Is the Australian government happy with themselves now. I would suggest that some Australian politicians are going to do well to get bodyguards, if they don't have them already, such is the dislike of some of their jackass policy, and some of them are the clowns that signed off some of this garbage."
This is a hot topic that won't be going away any time soon. (Credit: Gambling911)
Media Man Australia Profiles
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One individual wrote:
"The fact that the black list already contains politically controversial sites -of religions with which the government does not agree- should be taken as a sign of things to come. That information on euthanasia has been blocked is fairly hypocritical. It was legal in the Northern Territory under 15 years ago. The filter only covers http traffic - not peer to peer traffic. Anyone hosting illegal content over http is advertising their location. Surely distributors of illegal content would use P2P."
Another had this to say:
"Both during his appearance on Insight and Q&A last week, Conroy described it as a "Genuine conundrum" that blacklists have to be secret in order to work - therefore disenabling legitimate sites from knowing and protesting their blacklisting. I don't really see how it is a "Conundrum". If the sites are blocked, then supposedly people won't be able to access them ANYWAY. So what's wrong with transparency? And those who really want to view illegal sites will already know of them and can bypass."
Our man on the street, Greg Tingle, had this to say:
"I'm an adult and if I wish to watch adult porno that should be my business only. If I want to visit a poker or online casino website to place a bet, so be it. If I want to link to Betfair, I should have every right to. Here's a movie to watch, John Carpenter's 'They Live'. Part science fiction thriller and part black comedy, the film echoed contemporary fears of a declining economy, within a culture of greed and conspicuous consumption common among Americans in the 1980s. In They Live, the ruling class within the monied elite are in fact aliens managing human social affairs through the use of subliminal media advertising and the control of economic opportunity. Rudd, any bells ringing here. Liberal, you have found your next election winner I believe. The way this is going Australia is heading for a riot which will make Cronulla, Maroubra, Thailand, China and France look like child's play. Rudd and Conroy, it's happening on your watch. Is the Australian government happy with themselves now. I would suggest that some Australian politicians are going to do well to get bodyguards, if they don't have them already, such is the dislike of some of their jackass policy, and some of them are the clowns that signed off some of this garbage."
This is a hot topic that won't be going away any time soon. (Credit: Gambling911)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Politics
Aussie Senator Admits Error in Internet Censorship Policy, by Brett Collson - Poker News Daily - 2nd April 2009
A blacklist authored by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) aiming to censor various “indecent” websites, including online poker sites, leaked last month with the help of anonymous sources. Now, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is beginning to own up to errors within his controversial internet censorship policy following an uproar from the Australian community.
Among the more than 2,000 blacklisted sites were numerous online poker sites, including PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, as well as sites with hyperlinks to such banned sites. These websites were scheduled to be secretly blocked by Australia’s Internet service providers (ISPs). The list was leaked by wikileaks.com, a leading online antagonist of government censorship and a supporter of freedom of information made up of anonymous submissions.
ABC TV’s “Q&A” program that aired on March 26 was Senator Conroy’s first major media appearance to discuss the government's internet censorship plans. The response from viewers was substantial as more than 2,000 people sent in web and video questions regarding the government’s censorship proposals.
“We’ve never seen anything like the avalanche Stephen Conroy has generated,” said the show’s host, Tony Jones, when introducing Conroy.
Conroy’s admissions during the broadcast created even more of a stir and left considerable doubt regarding the government’s ability to filter the internet without unintentionally blocking legitimate websites. He acknowledged that images taken by artist/photographer Bill Henson were added to the prohibited websites list in error, and cast blame on the “Russian Mob” for the addition of a dentist’s site to the list, saying that the Mob hacked into the dentist’s site. Several other sites were on the blacklist even though they changed hosting providers and cleaned up their sites several years ago.
“The classification board looked at (Bill Henson’s) website and actually said it’s PG,” Conroy said. “A technical error inside ACMA I’m advised included it, but it was actually cleared by the Classification Board, so it shouldn’t be on the list.”
“I’ve asked ACMA in the last few hours to go through their entire list again to see if there are any other examples of this.”
Conroy’s comments raised concerns from Australians about freedom of speech issues. Because the community doesn’t have access to the blacklist they’re unaware of the criteria used in the banning process.
Such a ban on poker websites would have a huge effect in Australia, where the industry has been thriving even despite recent restrictions enforced by ACMA. The Internet Gambling Act 2001, which has been around for years, makes it unlawful to provide an interactive gambling service to a customer physically present in Australia. Only recently has ACMA become more determined in restricting such illegal material.
Some of the biggest poker tournaments in the world take place in Australia, including the multi-million dollar Aussie Millions as well as the Asia Pacific Poker Tour, Asian Poker Tour, and Australia-New Zealand Poker Tour. (Credit: Poker News Daily)
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Among the more than 2,000 blacklisted sites were numerous online poker sites, including PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, as well as sites with hyperlinks to such banned sites. These websites were scheduled to be secretly blocked by Australia’s Internet service providers (ISPs). The list was leaked by wikileaks.com, a leading online antagonist of government censorship and a supporter of freedom of information made up of anonymous submissions.
ABC TV’s “Q&A” program that aired on March 26 was Senator Conroy’s first major media appearance to discuss the government's internet censorship plans. The response from viewers was substantial as more than 2,000 people sent in web and video questions regarding the government’s censorship proposals.
“We’ve never seen anything like the avalanche Stephen Conroy has generated,” said the show’s host, Tony Jones, when introducing Conroy.
Conroy’s admissions during the broadcast created even more of a stir and left considerable doubt regarding the government’s ability to filter the internet without unintentionally blocking legitimate websites. He acknowledged that images taken by artist/photographer Bill Henson were added to the prohibited websites list in error, and cast blame on the “Russian Mob” for the addition of a dentist’s site to the list, saying that the Mob hacked into the dentist’s site. Several other sites were on the blacklist even though they changed hosting providers and cleaned up their sites several years ago.
“The classification board looked at (Bill Henson’s) website and actually said it’s PG,” Conroy said. “A technical error inside ACMA I’m advised included it, but it was actually cleared by the Classification Board, so it shouldn’t be on the list.”
“I’ve asked ACMA in the last few hours to go through their entire list again to see if there are any other examples of this.”
Conroy’s comments raised concerns from Australians about freedom of speech issues. Because the community doesn’t have access to the blacklist they’re unaware of the criteria used in the banning process.
Such a ban on poker websites would have a huge effect in Australia, where the industry has been thriving even despite recent restrictions enforced by ACMA. The Internet Gambling Act 2001, which has been around for years, makes it unlawful to provide an interactive gambling service to a customer physically present in Australia. Only recently has ACMA become more determined in restricting such illegal material.
Some of the biggest poker tournaments in the world take place in Australia, including the multi-million dollar Aussie Millions as well as the Asia Pacific Poker Tour, Asian Poker Tour, and Australia-New Zealand Poker Tour. (Credit: Poker News Daily)
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