Internet Filtering

Okay, it seems the ISP-level internet filtering in my country is going to happen (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...o-opt-out.html)

My question is, what the hell can I do!? This is terrible, they're going to slow our internet further! It's already slow and patchy as hell. The government is stupid. I'm affraid when it does happen, I may not be on the forums anymore :(. I'll have to turn into an underground pirate using the large (free) wireless intranet that exists in my city.

Is it possible to sue the government? And do they do any such thing in other "democratic" countries? Finally, what would you do if the government did such a thing?

/end rant

>> Is it possible to sue the government?
If this is a real question, yes it is. Cases involving the United States are the responsibility of the attorney general. The Australian government ought to have a similar post.

>> Finally, what would you do if the government did such a thing?
Stock up on pr0ns while it is still available. Hope a badass attorney dishes out a kick in the butt. Alternatively, you could also find a girlfriend. Demand for pr0ns falls sharply after such an event.

I'm not interested in the pr0ns at all... it's the false positives and the slow down I'm angry about.

I better not take the road of legal action if I ever want a job in this country, plus I wasn't talking about me suing... instead a business that has its website blocked or sometimes blocked due to false positives. I might write to my local pollies :D

If it is enacted and it sounds like it will be I assume it will all come out in the wash. IE: just wait and see what happens. It is my estimation the cost vs the benefit of this will be challenged quickly by a large percentage of your population.

That's not a bad idea. After all the "install yourself software filter" quickly failed.

Has anything like this come up in the US? Ie has any of the government tried to do such a thing?

I guess not much can be done about the slowdowns, but I heard people in China (the only place I've heard that has internet censorship besides Australia) use encrypted VPN tunnels to bypass the filtering system. But then the problem would be to find a proxy where you can VPN to, that has not been blocked.

Nothing like that in Canada.

Not so much filtering, but a hell of a lot of "spying"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7463333.stm

And the UK has had RIP for a long while, and it's been well abused so far :(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulat...owers_Act_2000

AFAIK,previously such restrictions failed their purpose.
I remember reading in news some time back that when such filtering was implemented previously at Australia ,some kid broke the filtering stuff and gained access to some restricted site within hours(or maybe minutes) after the filtering stuff was implemented just to show how easy it is to counter such restrictions.
As for phone and email tapping,that's simply outrageous.
What's wrong with these countries, anyways?

> What's wrong with these countries, anyways?
Democracy :-). Or at least the lack of it...

Most of our ideas come from the UK because of the commonwealth and everything, but thankfully nothing like that. I hate to see what's going to become of the internet in 20 years.

I think that the government has finally realized that there is a huge political risk involved in introducing the filter (that there are a lot of votes riding on this).

I also think the government previously thought that the majority of voters would be in favor of the filter, indifferent or oblivious to it.

An assumption I now think they understand is incorrect.

Very few are oblivious or indifferent to it and many of us are against the filter (and we are passionately and vocally against it, with the weight of technical expertise).

Many companies (with teams of very expensive lawyers) use internet portals for e-commerce, conducting millions of transactions per day.

There is a big risk here for even a very slightly faulty filter, not only of litigation for the lost trade, but of damaging the current fragile economy.


I hope delay in the trial signals the government is trying to find a politically acceptable way to back away from the filter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cyberfish

I guess not much can be done about the slowdowns, but I heard people in China (the only place I've heard that has internet censorship besides Australia) use encrypted VPN tunnels to bypass the filtering system. But then the problem would be to find a proxy where you can VPN to, that has not been blocked.

Nothing like that in Canada.

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When my brother was in Kuwait, they routinely used VPN proxies in the netherlands, because Kuwait interferes with Skype traffic, something about they think the soldiers are stealing money from their national telecom by bypassing the $1.00 a minute long distance charges for calling home.

$1 a minute? Yikes!