Internet Filter

I got online in 1992. Most people don’t know this but the Internet was created in the late 60s. The idea was to create a computer network that could withstand a Nuclear attack. This meant no computer could be more important than another on the network. So that if Washington got hit the computer network would keep going.

What the Australian Government is trying to do now flies in the face of what makes the Internet great. Freedom. They are trying to add another layer so that every byte you download can be approved by the Govt censor. Does this sound like Australia?

What happens when the filter breaks at the ISP? I’ve been around computers for quite a few years now and you may have noticed this too. Sometimes computers hang, in some instances I’ve even heard of them crashing. If all Internet traffic has to pass through the Govt censor computer and get approved before you see it, does my Internet access grind to a halt if the filter hangs?

Another thing it is certain to do is generate false positives. Well forget about the filter generating false positives, as we found out this week the Govt own blacklist contains plenty of legal sites that have no place being on a blacklist. Now I can understand why Senator Conroy may find dentists damaging or offensive. They scare the bejesus out of me, but there was one site listed that was just photos of cats. I can only imagine how that made it to the blacklist. I sure there was a directive from Senator conroy that said No pussy pix. Or it may have been Kitty porn, but gambling sites? Was this to curry favour with Anti Pokies Senator Nick Xenaphon? We’ve already made sure we have to import all gambling sites from overseas as the last Govt made it illegal for Australians to setup online gambling sites. Unless of course it was sports or lotto. How many billion did Australians lose last year to poker machines and yet if I want to play online poker I have to do it on a site outside this country?

Governments have no place regulating the Internet. We’re doing quite well without you, thank you.

The Web which began back in 1992, has been the fastest growing industry in history. The reason for this is simple. Anyone can contribute. The dotcom era showed us that you can’t fake it online. If you are no good at running your online business and finding customers and delivering excellence, then see you later. The crowd moves to where the best services are. Unlike traditional industries that get propped up by Govt with your money when times are tough, the Internet industry knows that we can’t be complacent. It must continually evolve with the demands of users. This is no place for a filter. It will be useless.

About 10 years ago a 16 yo turned a multibillion dollar, 80 yo industry on it’s head. Sean Fanning invented a little program called Napster and that was the end of the music industry as we know it. Finally in 2008 online music sales are the strongest they’ve ever been. It took ten years though for the industry to adapt. They finally understood that they had to provide what their customers wanted. Quality downloadable reasonably priced products. If they didn’t it was easier to go to any P2P sharing program and get what you want. If the crowd doesn’t like what you’re offering they’ll find another way. This filter is dead in the water before it’s launched.

There are many other examples, most recently downloads in Victoria of the TV series Underbelly when the courts had banned it’s screening due to a pending court case. They were selling the DVDs on building sites for God’s sake. How long do you think it will take the Govt porn feed to do the rounds. This filter will be extremely easy to get around. As we have seen this week, the blacklist will be distributed far and wide and end up being a default porn feed.

Some numbers for you to. The most accurate filter the Govt has tested will slow your speed down by 89%. For businesses like mine, that use the Internet a lot it would be like power blackouts. We still don’t have a National Broadband Network and we’re talking about slowing speeds down to 1997 speeds? If the Govt were to implement their best filter here is what you can forget about - Online video. Forget it dead, images on websites forget it. In fact, any website that was built after 1998 would be pretty hard to look at if you are on a 1.5mbps connection. You’d be paying 2009 prices for 1997 speeds.

The blacklist was created by the former liberal govt, so why do we have their members such as Nick Minchin coming out this week and telling us that parental supervision is the only way to protect kids online? Why do we have the Liberal party who started this nonsense 10 years ago coming out against the filter? Have they forgotten that their former leader John Howard promised to create a similar filter in the lead up to the last election?  Do these people think we’re stupid? Well the simple answer to that would have to be a resounding YES. No matter which mob occupies most seats in there, they both want to pander to special interest groups in order to curry favour in the senate.

How the heck is the Govt. going to keep children safe from Net nasties when it can’t even keep it’s own secret blacklist secret. Now if you happen to link to a site that is on this secret blacklist you can be fined $11000 a day. However the only way you will find out that you are actually linking to a site on this blacklist is when ACMA knocks on your door with an $11,000 fine. The monumental stupidity of this policy sounds like a script by Monty Python and it would be funny except these people on both sides of the house are condemning Australia to a digital backwater.

The only way. The ONLY way to protect your families online is through education. The Internet is not going away. If the Govt wants to throw around our money let’s throw it at the schools and libraries.