Project Aus 5.0 - The Aussie Revolution

Well, im sure most of you would have heard of this over the past couple of years. Basically, the government has been planning a country-wide Internet Filter. This filter is supposedly for cyber-safety and is stated to protect kids from pedos and harmful things on the internet.

First off, if you believe thats the true reason i facepalm you. Severely. This is a china-like-filter that will simply result in internet censorship. It will be covered so well that it wont really come out for some time, but expect your interwebz to suddenly start getting smaller and smaller.

Not only does this software incorrectly filter out websites, it also filters websites with nothing really that wrong with them, but the system is harsh. Earlier tests indicated every 1000 websites in 1 million were being filtered incorrectly. Doesnt sound like a lot? I dont think you understand the scope of the situation. Sure, recently tests results have been better, but the inability to get perfect results will be the perfect excuse to hide behind when political, protest and euthanasia sites start being blocked.

Now, there was a release stating that users could opt out of the program. But more recently, stakeholders have been interviewed and have said that whilst the ability to opt out of the child-safe filter (YES, OUR PORN IS SAFE) you cannot opt out of the illegal content. So, wave goodbye to a lot of your favourite sites (if your browsing is anything like mine). "illegal content" btw doesnt mean the site is illegally running. if there is even a small fragment of the site that someone trolls with say, child porn, and even if they are banned by admins, that site will still be filtered. So goodbye to the chans. Even if a total opt-out feature was enabled, interviews with stakeholders have assured the public that we would go on a blacklist to be monitored. Basically, if its illegal and there is infastructure in place to stop it, you cant opt out.

One positive note in all this; so far the software cannot detect P2P stuff. So although most torrenting websites will be blocked, if you can get hold of .torrent files then all your music, movie and game bandwidth allocations each month can continue.


Now, heres my reasoning. They say they want to stop not only children being corrupted by pedos online, but also the Child pornography networks that are easily accessible. So, if these pedos cant get access to CP on the internet, what are they gonna do? They are going to resort to making their own. And guess what? Noone can track them easily anymore because, oh thats right, we stopped there ability to go and post the pics on the internet. GREAT FUCKING WORK.


Also, im not sure what the go is with proxies. I mean, the infastructure is very unclear and im not sure exactly how its going to work, but im sure proxies would work to an extent (although depends on how the proxy works and whether the proxy is banned yet)


This is a disgusting abuse of power and is unlawful. Sure, it starts under the CP/illegal blanket, but then slowly those protest sites start dissappearing, euthanasia sites start dissappearing (i am a fence sitter on this topic btw, its just a good example to use), anti-government websites dissappear, all being placed under the cover of illegality.

The issue with this is the serious lack of media attention, and information from the government. Information from the government assumes this could actually be implemented in the not to distant future, and the mainstream population seems to be totally ignorant to it.

Thoughts? Opinions? Criticisms?

Couldn't be screwed reading it all, but I saw that and was like -phew-

Hehehehe. I'll read it later, I promise

Hmmm - I remember reading about this before on these forums - i think it was 4.0 actually and i think you posted then rockr as well and my opinon hasn't changed. It's a bloody joke that they are allowed to do this.

I also remember seeing a youtube video not long ago about "Internet 2" and how it would force out smaller websites due to the very high cost of getting a domain for it. Basically they say thats its going to kill free speach etc... and i agree with them (even though i think the guy saying it is a loon).

The reason im saying this though is they are similar yet diffrent at the same time. One is lawful - Internet 2 because no one has to buy a domain for it and its not killing free speach - it just comes at a higher price. I think though that Australia's china like blockages will most defiantly spark outrage both from hardcore gamers and the general community.

Btw - just quickly - has this topic just started to be covered by the media again? Is there any linkage to news stories or press reports recently? Any idea when this might come into effect?

Goddamn idiots in parliament. Surely some of them use mininova...oh well. I think its very stupid, and if its anything like my school's web blocking, we're gonna get google and wikipedia and thats about it.

I think, though, that they have the right idea. Trying to protect children from some of the crap on the internets, but shouldn't they just create something for individuals rather than the whole frakking country? So the rest of us (those that know what to avoid) can be happy to surf to anything we damn-well please.

Good point about the media attention... During the Olympics, it was a topic of discussion because the media over there was having trouble getting e-mails and stuff back to their own country. But I haven't seen anything about Australian Internet filters in the papers or TV...

hmmmmm...

The Howard Government tried this and failed dismally. They offered a free internet blocker called NetNanny - which is a really painful blocker as my brother found out when i installed it on his computer .

It failed because there was very little downloads because not many people actually knew of the program and even those who did download it - apparently only 20% of people still have it installed because it annoyed the adults using the computer too much.

I beleive though that the Rudd government should try this method first and have a decent advertising campaign behind it so people are aware of it instead of blocking at an ISP level.

I'm proud to say that in the last federal election i voted for Howard, look at where we are now with Rudd.

He wants us to become integrated with our south east asian neighbours... like having mandarin taught at school.. fuk that

I know the economic crisis has nothing to do with Rudd, but bloody swan doesn't know what the hell he's doing.

p.s if anyone takes offence to my indifference to south east asians, i'm first generation Australian vietnamese/chinese, so please don't call me racist

Seriously mate it would not matter who the hell is in government when it comes to economics. It doesn't matter if Swan or Costello or anyone else was treasurer - it simply would not make a diffrence on anything. Personally i think Swan made a decent budget this year - it wasn't spectacular but it most defiantly was not a failure. It was what we needed - a delicate balance. I know that Costello would of proberly of done the same.

I beleive that on some level we need to make new allies within Asia. They are now some of our biggest trading partners and account for about 60-70% of our total trade. However i don't agree with kissing there ass either but we need allies at the same time...

and then kev just spends our money without consulting the treasurer anyway, just like the last labor government (and yes i did know Howard was treasurer back then).
China is the next super-power, we need them as allies, if Aus was attacked by some country we'd be pretty screwed without them.

hmm - sorry this is the last off topic post i will make on the suject but in reply to Skull's post i beleive that while China might indeed be the next super power i beleive that we need to try and strengthen our ties with both Japan and India first. I think personally Japan and India will be big - maybe not as big as say China/Russia/USA but they will be vital allies in the times to come. Also i beleive it wouldn't hurt to strengthen ties with the Russians atm but at the same time try not to take sides in the growing Russian/USA tensions.

well, the government cant do anything with the economy. All they can do is textbook solutions and pray the consumers react the way they want, but at the end of the day neither government could do anything about it (and to be honest, i blame the howard government for not trying to restrict spending while we were booming, because the higher we go the harder we fall). the american economy is a perfect example of why perpetual debt doesnt work.

Also, this internet filter was being planned several years ago. Rudd really has nothing to do with it.

but yeah, i pretty much agree with matt here; we need to get asian allies, but at the same time the current approach is a bit much for my liking (why does this remind me of sharia law being brought into british courts...)


But anyway, back on topic. THEY ARE TAKING MAH INTERWEBZ