[LINK] Internet Censorship

[rene]

On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:57:57 +1030, Glen Turner wrote:

> On Sat, 2008-03-01 at 04:09 -0800, David Goldstein wrote:
>
>> Jumping the gun here aren't you Danny? We don't even know what the
>> version of "censorship" will be. Could it be 100 sites such as
>> Singapore? More? Less? Something altogether different? None of us on
>> this list have a clue what the government is proposi
> ng in this regards.
>
> Only because that information is being hidden from us. The government
> claims to know enough of its proposal to be running a trial in Tasmania.

And during Feb estimates it was made apparent that the trial in Tasmania, 
due to be completed by 30 June 2008, is a trial that the former Minister 
Helen Coonan directed the ACMA to undertake in June 2007, and to report on 
by 30 June 2008, to assess any advances in commercial ISP-level filtering 
products since they were tested in 2005-06. 
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/36697/20071105-0005/www.minister.dcita.gov.au
/media/media_releases/fielding_gets_it_wrong_on_filtering_trial.html

ACMA's announcement of the call for tenders on 27 June 2007 stated: 
===
"ACMA is seeking submissions from suitably qualified and experienced 
organisations to test a range of ISP level commercial filtering products.
The tender is part of ACMA's trial of content filtering products at the ISP 
level. The successful tenderer will be responsible for establishing a test 
environment and reporting on:
- the effectiveness of content filtering products at the ISP level in 
blocking illegal and inappropriate content;
- determining whether the operation of content filtering products at the 
ISP level would introduce delays into an ISP’s network;
- an analysis of the features presently available in content filtering 
products at the ISP level; and
- what capabilities current products have in regards to filtering non 
web-based content."
http://internet.aca.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/605564/pc=PC_310393
===

So, imo, it is quite apparent that the government's intent is to require 
ISPs to block "illegal and inappropriate content" and that they believe, or 
at least are hoping, that the above mentioned trial will produce vastly 
different results from the last trial of commercial ISP filtering products 
that was done by RMIT in 2005/2006. That was the trial that showed "that 
network performance was reduced by 18 per cent for the best performing 
filter and almost 78 per cent on the worst performing filter" and problems 
with accuracy of filtering, according to a NetAlert media release:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060828043250/http://netalert.net.au/03004-Educ
ation-the-Best-Filter-for-Young-Australians-on-the-Internet.asp

The NetAlert/RMIT TestLab Report is can be found here:
A Study on Server Based Internet Filters: Accuracy, Broadband Performance 
Degradation and some Effects on the User Experience, 1 June 2006.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060828041319/http://netalert.net.au/03100-A-St
udy-on-Server-Based-Internet-Filters---26-May-2006.pdf

What is unknown is what the government intends to do if their hopes about 
the capabilities of commercial filtering products, 2 years after the last 
trial, are shown to be fantasy.

Irene