[LINK] Dentist's website on Aussie blacklist (was Re: ACMA Internet Filter List Leaked

[Kim Holburn]

Some commentary here:

http://torrentfreak.com/torrent-sites-end-up-on-aussie-blacklist-090319/

> Torrent Sites End Up on Aussie Blacklist
> Written by enigmax on March 19, 2009
>
> There are claims today that the Australian government’s top-secret  
> blacklist of banned websites has been leaked onto the Internet.  
> There are a number of strange entries on the list that leaked to  
> Wikileaks, including a couple of torrent sites. However, Australian  
> Minister Stephen Conroy claims the list is not the country’s  
> official blacklist.
>
> It was almost inevitable. Today there are claims that the ACMA- 
> maintained website blacklist has leaked onto the Internet. Following  
> on from the publishing of the official blacklists of Thailand,  
> Denmark and Norway, Wikileaks is said to be publishing the Aussie  
> list today,


> but at the time of writing the site is unobtainable.
                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^

Although it seems to be back now.

> Of course, this is the Internet and already the list is available  
> from dozens of other sources.
>
> The blacklist contains around 2,400 entries and presuming that the  
> URLs are descriptive of the material they link to, the list appears  
> to be dominated by pornography, with a couple of legal YouTube-like  
> adult sites making the list. Of course there are also a worrying  
> number of sites appearing to deal with images of child abuse and no- 
> one could seriously complain about their inclusion - but that was  
> never really an issue.
>
> What bothers people more are the significant number of sites on the  
> list that don’t seemed to be linked to this type of abuse. In  
> addition to religious sites (both pro and anti), various Wikipedia  
> pages, euthanasia sites and a travel agent, a dentist’s website even  
> made the list.
>
> Other inclusions include several poker sites and UK-based betting  
> site, Betfair.com, which was banned in Western Australia during  
> January 2007. The company appealed saying the ban was  
> unconstitutional and in March 2008 it was overruled. However,  
> Betfair.com remains on the list.
>
> Speaking of the leak, Australia’s Broadband and Communications  
> Minister Stephen Conroy says the list is not the official ACMA  
> blacklist. He says that while the published list has around 2,400  
> blocked URLs, the official ACMA blacklist contains roughly 1,050.
>
> “There are some common URLs to those on the ACMA blacklist,” he  
> said. “However, ACMA advises that there are URLs on the published  
> list that have never been the subject of a complaint or ACMA  
> investigation, and have never been included on the ACMA blacklist,”  
> he said.
>
> Censorship of any type can lead to claims of undemocratic behavior  
> and as discussion over these blacklists grew during recent months,  
> there were concerns that many torrent sites would end up being  
> blocked as the ’system’ short-cutted ineffective copyright law, but  
> it appears that this has not come about on a significant scale.
>
> However, two BitTorrent sites - the now-defunct TorrentSpy.com and  
> TorrentFive.com - both appear on the leaked list but it’s impossible  
> right now to say if they appear on the ‘real’ ACMA list. There is no  
> indication why these sites are marked to be blocked, but presumably  
> at some point someone objected to some content indexed. Neither site  
> operated a tracker so banning the sites’ URLs would not achieve  
> much, since the content would be already available elsewhere - the  
> sites in question offered an index, much like Google.
>
> TorrentFreak itself is no stranger to being included on various  
> blocklists, even though the site operates completely legally. We  
> have no proof why companies, schools and other organizations would  
> add us to their blocklists, but suspect that it’s purely because we  
> have ‘torrent’ in our URL. And here lies the problem.
>
> The worry remains that without overview and without those that  
> maintain these blacklists being held to account, many other legal  
> sites could have their domains blocked too. It’s just a shame that  
> the only way people can find out if they are blocked is if  
> individuals leak these lists for all to see - then of course the  
> lists become a magnet for those drawn to illegal, sickening content.  
> It really is a double-edged sword.
>
> Hopefully no more torrent sites will be added to these blacklists -  
> the censorship of criminal material they conduct themselves is more  
> than sufficient and the torrent community is as keen as everyone  
> else to keep their sites safe for all.




On 2009/Mar/19, at 2:54 PM, Leah Manta wrote:

>
> Didn't I say it!  Didn't I!!!!  Didn't I say that the list was
> obtained not by a LEAK or an ILLEGAL and PUNISHABLE act, but in fact
> from the end user FILTERING software itself.  Here's the Wikileaks  
> spiel
>
> Talk about woman's intuition.
>
> OMG I guess the AFP had better prosecute all the Approved Software
> Filter Companies.
>
> (Incidentally Xerox is on the Banned List!)
>
>
>
> From Wikileaks.org:
>
>
>
> Most of the sites on the Australian list have no obvious connection
> to child pornography. Some have changed owners while others were
> clearly always about other subjects.
>
> Australian democracy must not be permitted to sleep with this loaded  
> gun.
>
> If Australia's "Senator for Censorship", Steven Conroy, has his way,
> Australia will be the first Western country to have a mandatory
> Internet censorship regime.
>
> When human rights activists push for transparent government and a
> life free from censorship, the retort from developing world
> governments will rightly be "haha... what about Australia?".
>
> The full blacklist follows in hyperlink form. Note that entries 1.52
> and 1.53 are somewhat unusual; while confirmed to be part of the ACMA
> blacklist in censorship software it is possible that these are
> contamination of some sort from another list. It is also possible
> that they are entries previously wrongly excluded from the ACMA
> because they were on another (non-ACMA) list.
>
> Regardless, the complete list is the one that is being used in by the
> censorship software maker, when placed into "adult -  
> unfiltered" (ACMA) mode.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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