[LINK] Green light for internet filter plans

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2009-12-16 at 18:22 +1100, Rick Welykochy wrote:
> > "Our pilot, and the experience of ISPs in many western democracies,
> > shows that ISP level-filtering of a defined list of URLs can be
> > delivered with 100 per cent accuracy,"
> 
> If it includes IP addresses, the filter will not attain 100% accuracy.
> IP addresses change all the time, in tune with the flux of the DNS.

The phrase "100% accuracy" has been bandied about a great deal, and
appears in the report numerous times. It just means that given a URL
(and specifically each URL in the ACMA black list) the filter correctly
blocked it.

> If it includes just domains, as in "wired.com.au", then the filter
> will overkill and block acceptable content.

You are confusing the technical with the human. If a filter is told to
block everything containing "wired.com.au" and then does, in fact, block
everything containing "wired.com.au" and nothing that does NOT contain
"wired.com.au" then it is 100% accurate, with zero overblocking and zero
underblocking. That is the meaning of those terms in the report.

The fact that they are not, perhaps, what we would *expect* them to mean
is neither here nor there.

The problem then becomes how does one feed the filter exactly that which
one wishes to block, such that it blocks nothing we do not wish it to
block...

It is really important to read the report, read the actual words, then
comment.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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