Conroy to receive secret filter forum report
- 05 October, 2010 10:40
- Comments 18
The Greens have dug up a handful of further details about Labor’s controversial mandatory filter project through the questions on notice procedure, including the fact that Communications Minister Stephen Conroy will shortly receive a report on a confidential online forum held by his department on the topic in April this year.
The revelation of the forum’s existence caused a furore in late April, as the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy was using it to discuss sensitive matters around the filter project, including the possibility of making it an offence to promote methods of circumventing the technology – despite the fact that Conroy’s office has explicitly stated it would not be an offence to bypass the filter.
But in a response to questions put in parliament by Greens Communications Spokesperson Scott Ludlam, the Government said ISPs participating in the forum from 12 to 23 April were not required to sign non-disclosure agreements to take part.
“The department is preparing a report to the Minister on the forum. A decision on the public release of the report will be made by the Minister after he has received a copy of the report,” the statement said.
The Government also revealed that depending on the individual circumstances of the case involved, unauthorised distribution of the secret blacklist of banned web addresses might constitute a criminal offence. The list of “Refused Classification” sites appears to already have been leaked once already to Wikileaks.
However, the Government confirmed that the Australian Federal Police had stopped its investigation into the leak in 2009.
Further Greens questions dealt with the questions of whether certain organisations would be exempt from being filtered, and whether the filter service would affect Australians travelling overseas and using a mobile device to access the internet through a local telco – a technique commonly known as roaming.
“Provision will be made for organisations with a legitimate work requirement to access an unfiltered service. This will apply to organisations such as law enforcement and the Australian Communications and Media Authority,” the Government responded.
And it confirmed that most Australians roaming overseas would be filtered because in the end, their connections would go though a network in Australia.
Finally, Ludlam questioned how many of the 435 web addresses on the blacklist at the time of questioning were sites, rather than individual URLs.
“At 30 April 2010, the ACMA’s list of URLs maintained pursuant to the requirements of Schedule 5 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 contained 435 individual URLs relating to online child sexual abuse material,” was the response. “These URLs belonged to 338 different internet domains or sites.”
The news comes as most in Australia’s technology sector consider the filter project dead and buried, with both the Greens and the Coalition planning to oppose any legislation that the Gillard Government introduces into Parliament to implement its policy, meaning the legislation is unlikely to have the numbers to proceed. However, the Australian Sex Party has warned the Coalition’s opposition to the plan may not be as solid as many have assumed.
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Comments
your vote filtered out
So for all the Getup youth that went & naively voted greens because somehow the Greens would keep Labour and Conroy honest. Maybe this is lesson for you in how Governments work.
You will be sold out. Conroy has the factional control of the Victoria Labour Right and he wants a filter, and the Greens will do as they are told. Because Conroy has bypass and other legislation to do exactly that.
And if you dont understand that NBN is the largest planned Stazi monitoring, recording, archival and analytics of an entire nation in active citizen survelliance - then you dont understand the NBN or its design. Its not about fibre or speeds or productivity but about Government control of your access and usage with full linkage to you, who or what you communicate with and why.
The Filter 'issue' will look like a nothing issue in comparism.
Go read the NBN design, ISP access agreements, bypass of telecommunications and privacy laws the NBN will be allowed.
No packet (voice or data) thru the NBN will pass without being fully inspected, matched, recorded and held for current or future Government usage. For ever.
Thats what you voted for via Bob..
NoFear
Blah blah blah boo hoo, get a life for petes sake, even if 1/3 of what you say is true, and I,m being generous with that, if you are a law abiding citizen so freakin what.
Visionary
#2, I understand your cynicism of the comments made in #1. I agree if people are law abiding they should have nothing to worry about. The sad fact is that throughout history when governments start to apply censorship or surveillance the scope seems to increase past the orginal (often good) intentions. I think the NBN and filter are quite separate issues and do not need to be lumped together. I do think some controls is needed over what material is available for people to view. Often those most vunerable need to be protected from exploitation, not those old enough to have free choice over their actions but those who are either too young or are economically disadvantaged.
Raymond
@ 1 The getup issue you should be concerned about is they managed to get 40,000 votes registered after the poll register date closed! who were those people, and where were those votes activated?
Nofear
@4 read the news Raymond and your question would resolve itself, those 40,000 were denied the chance to vote because of a illegal rule brought in by the Howard government to deny these people the vote.
it was deemed thus by a judge, if you have an issue with that I would suggest you contact the said Judge, who will quite rightly tell you to "FK off", however his more expensive flowery version would be 3 pages long and cost 20,000 dollars.
However do feel free to comment with your opinion on how outraged you are on an national issue on a forum that hardly anyone reads,way to go Raymond, what a loser.
lazypeople
@5 just a small clarification, those poor unfortunate people who were denied the chance to vote were just bone lazy. All people are required to have their name placed on the roll when they become eligible. Off the subject anyway and who cares!
Raymond
@ 5 At least I know what I am talking about, it had nothing to do with any illegal Howard or otherwise law, it was all to do with a cut of date, and the courts allowed a restrospective judgement to stand.
My point is, who were the people how did Getup garner all the addresses etc, and in what voting booths were they exercised?
And if you do not think that is an issue, you confirm your stupidity.
lazypeople
@7, does it really matter! afterall who cares. Mr "Nofear" clearly fears everything, and Ms "Your vote filtered out" is overly energetic about a filter that will never come!
Mr Rudd and now Mr Conroy are "Movers & Shakers" in the UN, good thing as it saves the rest of us from doing anything.
Intending member of Procrastination & Apathetic Society of the New World Order.
tradition
If the filter, were to filter out some of these tards here like 1 and 7, I'd change my mind and support it.
lazypeople
@9, what is a "tard"? oh dont worry about any reply probably will not read it.
Intending member of Procrastination & Apathetic Society of the New World Order
gnome
From the story above: "Conroy’s office has explicitly stated it would not be an offence to bypass the filter."
That, of course, was before the election. Now, it seems that the suddenly discovered imperatives of national security yada yada yada mean that anyone trying to bypass Conboy's State censorship will be liable to be thrown in jail. Just like the country where Conboy gets all his bright ideas, communist China.
tradition
@10 read 1 and 7 and it will become clearer
D Newman
This is why I dont have to say anything anymore RS, he just does all the work for us, he is by nature a social hand grenade, pull pin roll into crowd, crowd clears.
RS
@13 LOL...indeed.
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Hannah Urso
Hallo,
Das ist mein erster Post hier, ich finde es wichtig, wenn man weiß, mit wem man spricht. In meiner Freizeit beschäftige ich mich mit Vögeln (Zellensittiche).
Mein 2. Hobby ist meine <a href="http://suchmaschinen-liste.org">Suchmaschine</a> (ja ich pogrammiere ein wenig)!
Ich bin 28 Jahre jung ;) und habe 2 Kinder und eine Frau.
Wäre schön, wenn wir ein bisschen Spaß haben hier ;)!
Grüße
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