primus – Stilgherrian

30 June 2011

Crikey: Internet filtering isnt compulsory, but…

Over at Crikey I’ve written a summary of what’s happening with Australia’s internet filter.

Australia’s mandatory internet filtering by internet service providers (ISPs) won’t happen for at least two years. But weâ€™re getting filtering anyway. Voluntarily. By ISPs. Next month…

Telstra and Optus are expected to have their filters ready within weeks, although the situation with Primus is unclear…

The Internet Industry Association (IIA) is also about to release a voluntary industry code that would see an estimated 80% to 90% of Australian internet connections filtered by the Interpol blacklist over the next year. Attempts to access domains on the list would be redirected to an Interpol block page.

Overall, I reckon the process that’s now unfolding could well result in the gvernment’s planned mandatory ISP-level filtering disappearing off the table entirely.

As a bonus link, here’s Interpol’s explanation of their “worst-of” blacklist of child exploitation material.

28 June 201128 June 2011

Patch Monday: ISP filtering goes ‘voluntary’, plus updates

Australia’s mandatory internet filter is at least two years away, but Telstra and Optus are only weeks from implementing their “voluntary” equivalents. Where are we up to with this controversial issue?

That’s what I covered in yesterday’s Patch Monday podcast for ZDNet Australia. And as I explained on the weekend, I’m returning to my habit of doing a blog post here for each episode.

For this internet filtering update, I spoke with Peter Black, who teaches internet and media law at the Queensland University of Technology; network engineer Mark Newton; and Lyle Shelton, chief of staff for the Australian Christian Lobby.

You can listen below. But itâ€™s probably better for my stats if you listen at ZDNet Australia or subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe in iTunes.

Since this podcast was recorded, we’ve discovered that Primus isn’t so sure about voluntary filtering any more. They were the third ISP to commit to the plan last year. However the Internet Industry Association (IIA) has said most Australian ISPs will filter via the Interpol list this year.

Previous podcast on this issue covered the meaning of the Refused Classification content category, Senator Conroy’s announcement of the strategy in July 2010, and the apparent fact that parents don’t act on their cybersafety fears.

Please let me know what you think. Comments below. We accept audio comments too. Either Skype to stilgherrian or phone Sydney +61 2 8011 3733.

22 February 2009

Links for 17 February 2009 through 21 February 2009

Stilgherrian’s links for 17 February 2009 through 21 February 2009, massaged and relaxed:

BLOG CASUALTY: Bernardi sacked for revealing on his blog that Pyne is not a conviction politician | VEXNEWS: South Australian conservative Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi was sacked from the Coalition front bench after refusing to withdraw comments he made in a bog post. This’ll be interesting: leader Malcolm Turnbull will be at the Politics and Technology Forum in Canberra next Thursday, from which I’m liveblogging.
Filtering “dangerous”, says Obama strategist | MIS: Ben Self, who ran Obama’s online campaign for the US presidency, makes his position clear.
Content Filtering | Primus Telecom: iPrimus, the largest of the ISPs to have been accepted into the government’s Internet filtering trials so far, explains how and when they’ll be involving their customers.