Tag: stephen conroy

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Conroy announces filter-trial ISPs and clams shut

Crikey logo

I’m in Crikey today, looking at Senator Conroy’s announcement from last week of the first six ISPs to be taking part in the Internet “filtering” trials: Primus Telecommunications (iPrimus), Tech 2U, Webshield, OMNIconnect, Highway 1 and Netforce.

One of the questions I ask is: Why is there further mission creep?

Labor’s pre-election policy said: “A Rudd Labor Government will require ISPs to offer a ‘clean feed’ internet service to all homes, schools and public internet points accessible by children, such as public libraries.” Apart from pointing out again that “offer” isn’t the same as “require everyone to use”, the policy doesn’t mention business premises. Yet three of the ISPs (Highway 1, OMNIconnect and Netforce) are business-only ISPs.

As network engineer Mark Newton says, “If the Government is scope-creeping its plan to include business, I think it has some explaining to do.”

The article isn’t behind the paywall so it’s free to read.

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Episode 37 online

Screenshot from Stilgherrian Live episode 37

Stilgherrian Live episode 37 is now online for your viewing pleasure.

Of course it’s never the same without the live chat amongst the audience members, but there it is. We chose the “Cnut of the Week” (and I suspect I won’t give anything away if I say the result was predictable), and Gnamed the Gnome. We also explored the digestive system and did something distasteful involving bushfires.

[Update 13 February: For some reason it looks like the recorded audio is out of sync. I’ll drop a support note to Ustream tonight.]

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“Stilgherrian Live” returns, looks at Internet censorship

Screenshot from Stilgherrian Live episode 35

Yes, Possums, I know you’ve been hanging out all summer. (Maybe you need better-fitting board shorts?) But the time has finally come! (Maybe get a cloth?) Stilgherrian Live returns for 2009 tonight at 9.30pm Sydney time — with a conversation about Internet censorship.

For those who’ve only recently found me through Twitter or wherever, Stilgherrian Live is my continuing experiment in live video on the Internet — a chat show of sorts. You can find out more by reading all the posts in the Stilgherrrian Live category, or watching the previous episodes linked off the program page. People have also written about why they watch Stilgherrian Live.

There’ll be new segments for 2009, though not in this first episode. More on that another time, including news of the Stilgherrian Live Road Trip to Yass later this month and the occasional Urgent Squawk mini-programs. Tonight’s episode is a quickie, with little preparation, because I know that people want to talk about the latest Internet censorship news and its implications.

And yes, this means nominations are now open for “Cnut of the Week”…

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Crikey: Who supports compulsory Internet filtering, exactly?

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“The field trials of the Rudd government’s compulsory Internet filters, which were completed just before Christmas… no, they started before Christmas… no, that’s not right either… when do they start? Senator Conroy? Anyone? Can’t say? Fat kid on the far right? Okay, The Australian says they’re ‘imminent’. So another Christmas then.”

So starts my piece in Crikey today on… yes, you guessed it… the Rudd government’s plan for compulsory censorship of the Internet. There’s some interesting background on where this push for censorship comes from, and links to a new survey of one ISP’s customers — who don’t like the idea at all.

The article is not behind Crikey‘s paywall, so it’s free for all to read.

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Jim Wallace’s pro-censorship lies and distortions

The Australian Christian Lobby’s Jim Wallace is on the Fairfax news sites today, telling the same old lies to support compulsory Internet filtering. Sigh.

Since Wallace promotes himself as a representative of good Christian values, I’ll allow that he may just be ignorant rather than a deliberate liar. Ignorance is no sin: it can be cured with knowledge. But he does use the familiar fraudulent propaganda techniques: misrepresenting his opponents; cherry-picking numbers; failing to explore the implications of those numbers; citing the same suspect Australia Institute report; and wrapping it up in the same old “protect the children” cant.

Those of us who’ve been covering this issue for more than a year now are getting sick of responding to the same easily-rebutted debating tricks. But, as I keep saying, politics is a marathon event. So if Jim’s rolling out the same material, we’ll point out the same flaws.

Again.

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