[LINK] GetUp anti-censorship campaign gets cash fast

Jan Whitaker jwhit at janwhitaker.com
Fri Dec 5 12:31:33 AEDT 2008



Cash floods in for anti-censorship protests

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/12/05/1228257282965.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Asher Moses
December 5, 2008 - 11:16AM


Political activists GetUp have raised over $30,000 in less than a day 
to support their fight against the Government's plan to censor the 
internet, a response the group has described as "unprecedented".

The money will be put towards an 
<https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet&id=465>advertising 
blitz designed to inform the public of the consequences of the plan, 
which experts say include slower internet speeds, significant false 
positives, failure to stop people from subverting the filters and the 
risk that the blacklist will be expanded to include the blocking of 
regular pornography, political views, gambling and pro-abortion sites.

Meanwhile, as the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, continued 
to dodge questions regarding the scheme in Senate question time, it 
emerged that protesters are planning 
<http://wiki.efp.org.au/index.php?title=Main_Page>anti-filtering 
marches for Saturday December 13 in Australia's capital cities.

Almost 500 people have signed up on Facebook to attend the protest at 
Sydney's Town Hall, while more than 1000 will picket at Melbourne's 
State Library. Thousands more are listed as "maybe attending".

Live trials of the controversial internet filters, which will block 
"illegal" content for all Australian internet users and 
"inappropriate" adult content on an opt-in basis, are slated to begin 
by Christmas, despite harsh opposition from the Greens, Opposition, 
the internet industry, some child welfare advocates, consumers and 
online rights groups.

Even NSW Young Labor has abandoned the Government's filtering plans, 
passing a motion last week rejecting the mandatory scheme and calling 
on Senator Conroy to adopt a voluntary opt-in system.

Ed Coper, campaigns director at GetUp, said the response to the 
anti-censorship campaign had been "astronomical" and "quite unprecedented".

Almost 80,000 people have signed GetUp's petition and the 
organisation has created a widget that website owners can embed on 
their sites, which allows their visitors to sign the petition and 
obtain more information about the filtering plans.

Mr Coper said GetUp's advertising blitz would begin next week, with 
the number of ads determined by how much money is raised.

"We're thinking about putting it [the ad] on high profile news 
websites but also on the websites that are trafficked by the more 
engaged internet users - the technological websites that the regular 
internet users visit a lot," he said.

Despite having yet to prove the viability of its filtering plan, the 
Government will by the end of the year shut down the existing 
NetAlert scheme, which was set up by the previous government and 
provides free software filters to all Australian families.

These are different to the filters proposed by Senator Conroy, which 
are mandatory and block sites from the ISP end.

In 1999, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, then the Opposition 
communications spokesman, told Parliament that ISP filters were 
"largely ineffective", citing CSIRO research that found software 
filters were better because they were voluntary and the level of 
blocking could be customised by users.

Newer tests released by the Australian Communications and Media 
Authority in June found available ISP filters frequently let through 
content that should be blocked, incorrectly blocked harmless content 
and slowed down network speeds by up to 87 per cent.

Moreover, none of the filters will be capable of filtering non-web 
applications such as peer-to-peer file sharing programs. And the 
filters can easily be evaded by those set on accessing child 
pornography, using freely available tools.

During Senate question time this week, Senator Conroy refused to say 
how many customers an ISP would need to enlist for a trial to be 
credible or whether the results would be independently examined and verified.

He justified the closure of NetAlert by saying it was a "monumental 
failure of a policy" because the free voluntary filters had attracted 
"extraordinarily small usage".

Anti-filtering advocates have seized on those comments as a sign that 
there is little demand for internet filters in the first place.



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/

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~Madeline L'Engle, writer

Writing Lesson #54:
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