[LINK] More ASIC -- internet filterer, worse than Conroy's

Marghanita da Cruz marghanita at ramin.com.au
Fri May 17 11:19:28 AEST 2013


Hi Jan,

Seems the Melbourne Education site was collateral damage,
from the regulation of the ISP - under the telecommunications act?

Marghanita
Jan Whitaker wrote:
> 
> Bumbling ASIC heralds new internet censorship era
> 
> http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/05/16/bumbling-asic-heralds-new-internet-censorship-era/
> <http://www.crikey.com.au/author/bernardkeane/>Bernard 
> Keane | May 16, 2013 11:33AM | EMAIL | PRINT
> 
> ASIC has been revealed as the agency behind the 
> blocking of a Melbourne education website, using 
> a hitherto-unused internet censorship power.
> 
> An inept regulator exercising a hitherto-unused 
> internet censorship power has been revealed as 
> the source of the accidental blocking of a Melbourne education website.
> 
> [snip]
> 
> <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ta1997214/s313.html>Under 
> s.313, a carrier or carriage service provider must:
> 
> � � give officers and authorities of the 
> Commonwealth and of the States and Territories 
> such help as is reasonably necessary for the 
> following purposes: enforcing the criminal law 
> and laws imposing pecuniary penalties; assisting 
> the enforcement of the criminal laws in force in 
> a foreign country; protecting the public revenue; 
> safeguarding national security.�
> 
> ASIC in effect used this power to censor the 
> internet, in the course of which over 1000 sites 
> unconnected to the target site were blocked, 
> including Melbourne Free University, which was 
> told nothing by authorities or its ISP about why.
> 
> ASIC is one of Australia�s most inept regulators, 
> with a string of courtroom defeats marking its 
> efforts to enforce corporate law. Despite its 
> record of bumbling, last year ASIC used the Joint 
> Committee on Intelligence and Security�s inquiry 
> into data retention to demand an expansion of its 
> power to intercept internet and phone communications.
> [Gee, look how well that's working out....]
> 
> ASIC�s use of the s.313 power opens the 
> possibility of a de facto internet filter scheme 
> with less oversight  than the filter originally 
> proposed by Stephen Conroy in the government�s 
> first term. As LeMay correctly notes, a filter 
> comprised of individual requests from a variety 
> of regulators asserting they are �enforcing 
> criminal laws� or �safeguarding national 
> security� is  harder to monitor or hold to 
> account. As Melbourne Free University discovered, 
> it is also very difficult for businesses and 
> organisations accidentally blocked to discover who has blocked them or why.
> 
> In Tuesday�s budget, the government announced its 
> abandonment of the internet filter scheme would 
> enable a saving of several million dollars. It 
> has been replaced with a �voluntary� filter 
> scheme limited to sites identified by Interpol. 
> That filter is a minimal one compared with both 
> to the original Conroy proposal, which would have 
> targeted a broader range of allegedly �illegal� 
> content under Australian laws, and the one 
> available via s.313, which is driven purely by 
> the internal interpretations by regulators of 
> what is �enforcing criminal law� or �safeguarding national security�.
> 
> [snip]
> 
> 
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
> jwhit at janwhitaker.com
> blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
> business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
> 
> Our truest response to the irrationality of the 
> world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
> ~Madeline L'Engle, writer
> 
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-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
Ramin Communications Pty Ltd
http://ramin.com.au/
Phone:(+61)0414-869202





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