Is it really possible that implementing a simple a R18+ classification for Australia was just too hard for our communications minister and government to fathom?

There is no chance in hell such a filter will be able to legally block online content networks such as Steam who have a massive list of 3rd party content providers which supply you the games.  Yes that includes every major Australian ISP and gaming network.

The Clean Feed filter in general shows complete disregard for our common-sense and intelligence and is a testament to an average uneducated, archaic, politically correct and ratings crazed government.

You may have seen this article from the age:

Far from being the ultimate weapon against child abuse, it now will officially censor content deemed too controversial for a 15-year-old. In a free country like ours, do we really need the government to step in and save us from racy web games?”

Senator Conroy’s spokesman said the filter would cover “computer games such as web-based flash games and downloadable games, if a complaint is received and the content is determined by ACMA to be Refused Classification”. All games that exceed MA15+ are deemed to be RC.

Is this a typical morning at the Conroy mansion?

Backwards Man from Pepsi on Vimeo.

Family Friendly Filters and one of those provided free to (a few) Australian families by the Howard government’s now defunct NetAlert scheme. Provided you’re reasonably tech-savvy, you can extract a list of URLs with the rather unambiguous name “Websites_ACMA.txt”. Depending on which version of the software you download, you get the August 2008 list as published, or something similar containing more recent material.

This method has been proven and also fixed at the Source.

Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy calls the published Wikileaks list of urls as Grossly irresponsible. He is right in this regard as most of the list of URL’s is generally the lowest form of human filth you can imagine, though the Blacklisting of generic ‘unwanted material’ is a case of going too far.  In an interesting turn of Events, iiNet has quit Conroy’s filter trial.

Malone stated that the recent media storm around the leaked blacklist of URLs similar to the ACMA blacklist was part of the reason iiNet had decided to withdraw, along with the policy which was always changing and “confused” explanations of the trial’s purpose.

“It became increasingly clear that the trial was not simply about restricting child pornography or other such illegal material, but a much wider range of issues including what the government simply describes as ‘unwanted material’ without an explanation of what that includes,” Malone said in a statement.

Wikileaks to Conroy: Go after our source and we will go after you

WIKILEAKS PRESS RELEASE (for immediate release)
Thu Mar 19 23:07:20 EDT 2009

“Wikileaks to Conroy: Go after our source and we will go after you.”

The Stockholm based publisher of Wikileaks today issued a warning to the Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Steven Conroy, who is responsible for Australian internet censorship.

Senator Conroy issued an official media release yesterday in response to Wikileaks’ release of last year’s confidential Australian internet censorship blacklist. The Senator said that his department, “is investigating this matter and is considering a range of possible actions it may take including referral to the Australian Federal Police. Any Australian involved in making this content publicly available would be at serious risk of criminal prosecution.”

The Senator is perhaps unware of the legal and diplomatic risks associated with the statement.

Sunshine Press Legal Adviser Jay Lim stated:

“Under the Swedish Constitution’s Press Freedom Act, the right of a confidential press source to anonymity is protected, and criminal penalties apply to anyone acting to breach that right.

Wikileaks source documents are received in Sweden and published from Sweden so as to derive maximum benefit from this legal protection. Should the Senator or anyone else attempt to discover our source we will refer the matter to the Constitutional Police for prosecution, and, if necessary, ask that the Senator and anyone else involved be extradited to face justice for breaching fundamental rights.”

Senator Conroy may wish to consider the position of the South African Competition Commission, which decided to cancel its own high profile leak investigation in January after being advised of the legal ramifications of interfering with Sunshine Press sources.

Over 120,000 people attended the concerts. The 80,000-plus crowd at the MCG is officially the biggest paying audience ever at any Australian concert or charity event.

The opening set from Coldplay in Sydney included a couple of memorable moments. Singer Chris Martin crowd-surfed his way so far out in to the crowd that it looked like he may not make his way back on to stage to finish the show. But he did make it back in time for a special performance of You’re The Voice alongside John Farnham.

Some images from the Triple J Photo gallery.

]]> http://www.binarygamer.com/source/sound-relief-roundup/feed/ 0 http://www.binarygamer.com/source/perspective/mandatory-internet-filtering-netspace-survey/ http://www.binarygamer.com/source/perspective/mandatory-internet-filtering-netspace-survey/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:26:23 +0000 AzzX http://www.binarygamer.com/?p=656 Netspace have released the final survey results I mentioned in our Clean Fead article with almost 10,000 people responding.  Customers were asked about the Federal Government’s intentions regarding Mandatory Internet Filtering:

As expected, the results are overwhelmingly against such filtering.  Check out the full results of the survey: Netspace Australian Filtering Results.

If you wanted a picture to describe the term UnAustralian I believe this would be good example.  This resident has mowed exactly half a metre of a 3 meter side strip just in line with the property boundries.  Basically a big FU to his/her neighbour…. Sort of sad when you think about it.