Uproar in Australia over plan to block Web sites

December 26, 2008 By TANALEE SMITH , Associated Press Writer

(AP) -- A proposed Internet filter dubbed the "Great Aussie Firewall" is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries.

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• morpheus2012 - Dec 26, 2008
  • Rank: 3.1 / 5 (7)
  welcome to the new world
  
  of nazi states that ar called democracy
  
  this already happenings all over the world
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• Dimezzano - Dec 26, 2008
  • Rank: 4.5 / 5 (4)
  1984, Georges Orwell....
  Soylet Green, Richard Fleischer....
  ???
  
  WAKE UP FOLKS !!!
  
  R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N ---!!!---
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• M_N - Dec 27, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (5)
  I'm in Australia, and think the filter is crazy. The previous government tried (and failed) to introduce something similar, and ironically they were somewhat more "conservative".
  
  One point of error in the article: the proposed filter WILL include filtering of P2P traffic:
  http://apcmag.com...ters.htm
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• Newbeak - Dec 27, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (6)
  What will the new tourist greeting begin with? May I suggest,"Welcome to the People's Republic of Australia" ?
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• derricka - Dec 27, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (6)
  It just won't work. Period.
  To put it simply, any kind of data moving on the internet can be made to look any other kind of data. Porn could be made to look like bible study material, and vice versa. A simple HTTPS connection or VLAN to an outside portal, and there goes your firewall. The Aussie government is wasting their taxpayer dollars in a futile effort to "Do something" for their worried voter base.
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• jonnyboy - Dec 27, 2008
  • Rank: 3.7 / 5 (3)
  Same old sh#t, let's use children as an excuse to force adults to conform to "our" moral standards. If they really are worried about the children they should be pushing for a law that imprisons parents who allow their children unsupervised and/or uncontrolled access to the internet. Society didn't have your children folks, YOU DID!!!! Take responsibility for your own actions
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• Nartoon - Dec 27, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (4)
  It's the start of the slippery slope.
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• superhuman - Dec 28, 2008
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (4)
  1. It won't work
  
  2. Children will see all this which the filter aims to block anyway. The whole idea that children should be protected from reality is stupid, they will live in that reality soon enough and need to be prepared. Instead of pretending the problems don't exist teach them how to react.
  
  3. Families who want filters can buy their own, or if the government wants to help them it should develop it's own filter program and then offer it for free to them.
  
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• morpheus2012 - Dec 28, 2008
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
  for the dummys here who have no clue in life
  
  this is not about children or porn
  
  is about the world elite who trys to block sites
  that tell the truth about them and there evil plans
  of nazi new world order
  
  here is a site that they block even in england under hacking material or hatefull speech
  
  http://www.prisonplanet.com/
  
  check it out for urself u will see no hacking no hate just telling it how its,
  
  so wil u get a clue whats this nazi elite is all about and all this firewall stuff
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• Velanarris - Dec 28, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (4)

  1. It won't work
  
  2. Children will see all this which the filter aims to block anyway. The whole idea that children should be protected from reality is stupid, they will live in that reality soon enough and need to be prepared. Instead of pretending the problems don't exist teach them how to react.
  
  3. Families who want filters can buy their own, or if the government wants to help them it should develop it's own filter program and then offer it for free to them.
  

  This isn't about filtering sites at the machine level. This is broad range ip and protocol filtering. They're effectively censoring the internet for everyone, not just children. This is a very bad thing.
  
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• Slick - Dec 28, 2008
  • Rank: 1 / 5 (4)
  I know how the Australians feel. When watching American football, I, my children and my grandchildren are forced to watch displays of ignorance by the networks in the form of xian propaganda. We try to avert our eyes, but the displays are quite well organized, so it is difficult. My question is when will we see similar displays from Muslims and Jews. Of course I'm sure representatives of the Muslim and Jewish religion would not be so stupid.
  I have a question: why don't the two opposing teams just line up and pray against each other. Let god decide who the winner is. I'm sure the bible must contain some guidelines for determining the winner.
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• OZGuy - Dec 28, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
  
  For starters this is months old "News".
  
  The have no intention of actually implementing the filter. The "attempt" is to humour the Australian Christian Lobby that helped the current Government win power.
  
  The current government is "BIG" on discussion groups/ comittees and "very small" on making decisions unless they are extremely popular, which this isn't.
  
  My opinion is that this'll do the rounds of various interested groups, generating lots of income for the participants, over the next few months. A report will be drawn up, Treasury will then look at the report and then it will be deemed too expensive in the current economic climate and the whole issue will evaporate.
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• morpheus2012 - Dec 29, 2008
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (2)

  It's the start of the slippery slope.

  
  
  here is the a video tahts explain exaclty where this sleppery slope leads
  
  actually with there own plans in writing exposed
  
  http://www.youtub...UcjIIV_Q
  
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