[LINK] Fed gov filtering software a victory for the Link Institute

Robin Whittle rw at firstpr.com.au
Mon Sep 10 14:40:42 AEST 2007


Whatever the failings of the new filtering software, or whatever
concerns might arise from its cost:

  http://www.netalert.gov.au

I think this represents a victory for Common Sense and for the Link
Institute.

In April 1996:

  http://www.anu.edu.au/mail-archives/link/link9604/

we tackled the Federal regulator of the day, trying to convince them
of the unacceptable costs of trying to erect a filtering barrier
around Australia - and of how any such barrier could be circumvented
by many people.

  http://www.anu.edu.au/mail-archives/link/link9604/0155.html

An account of my flight to commence this mission is here:

  http://www.firstpr.com.au/link/linksyd2.txt


Despite the calls of Senator Harradine and others, no such barriers
were ever put in place - as they have been in China, Singapore and
in some other countries.

I recall advocating that people use their own filtering software, on
their own PCs.  Content filtering software has its own problems -
such as lack of transparency about exactly what is blocked, mismatch
between what is blocked and what the user wants to be blocked etc. -
but at least it is an opt-in system and not a government attempt to
physically block communications in the Net itself, or to expect ISPs
to achieve a similar outcome.

  http://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Censor/

Australia does have prohibition of a wide range of material from
being hosted on servers in this country, much as the US government
enacted laws to achieve in the mid-1990s.  Those laws were struck
down as being contrary to the First Amendment to the US Constitution
- but Australia has no such constitutional protection for freedom of
speech.

Due to some carefully considered US reforms of the late 18th
century, the USA is a good place to host almost any material which
is not in violation of criminal law.

 - Robin         http://www.firstpr.com.au





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