Anti-Net filtering group aims to bring protestors closer together
- 08 January, 2010 14:50
- Comments 2
Giving Internet filtering protestors an avenue for collaboration and promoting education to end-users are top priorities for Electronics Frontiers Australia’s latest recruit.
Queensland University of Technology senior law lecturer, Peter Black, was brought on-board by EFA this week after a job process that began just before Christmas. He aims to make the anti-Internet filter group a hub for efforts by malcontents to stop the Government mandatory filtering plans.
“I think there have been a lot of very interested and passionate people all over the Internet,” Black said. “But to date, there hasn’t been a lot of communication or collaboration between the interested bodies.
“I think it’d be wishful thinking to say that everyone could come together in one particular organisation. That’s why we’re not about bringing everyone into one organisation or under the EFA.”
Black admitted the anti-filter movement had not proved highly successful thus far, as Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, is pressing ahead with plans to pass filtering legislation.
“Something we can all do better is explain the problems of the Government’s policy to the non-technology members of Australian society,” he said. “Most families don’t have a high level of technology or an understanding of the issues, so that’s one thing all organisations can do.
“If we are able to do a better job of communicating what’s at stake, then you will see the movement gain more momentum both online and offline.”
But the Government’s determination to pass a mandatory filter meant there was little chance of forcing it to cancel the proposed legislation, Black said.
“Success in this instance may not be getting the Government to completely back down, although in the ideal world that’s what we want,” he said.
“We may be able to persuade the Government that there are sensible amendments that can be made to its proposal so that it loses its mandatory nature, which is the most odious aspect.”
Earlier this week, Enex Testlab managing director, Matt Tett, told ARN his company’s ISP filter trials had proven a national system of mandatory filters could be brought in with minimal impact on access speed.
ARN contacted the office of Minister Conroy, but did not receive a response by time of publication.
Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email ARN
- Follow ARN on twitter
- Aberdeen Group: Building Business Resilience Through Active Archive
- Spectra Logic and Australian National University Success Story - March 2012
- Premier Media Group Fast Study
- In Search of the Long-Term Archiving Solution —Tape Continues to Be a Major Player
- Red Light In the Control Centre Saves Hours of Chaos
-
iOS 5 delivers 'a wealth of changes'
-
REVIEW: HTC Sensation - a powerful beast wrapped in a sturdy, aluminium shell
-
First look: Samsung Galaxy S III
-
Spotify tunes into Australia
-
Telstra and Navman Wireless extend GPS tracking partnership
Get exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events. 
Comments
Matt
Compromise is what they want I fear.
From what I have been told the ACMA list was a compromise made from a filtering proposal just over 10 years ago. Now what they hope for a compromise as that we start enforcing the list against the Aust Public. In another 10 years it'll be to expanded it beyond the ACMA's list and presto, in the space of 20 years they get what they wanted in the first place.
Please don't kid yourself into thinking a compromise is any sort of a win for us, it's just another small step in the long journey they're on, we should stop it now as every compromise makes it harder to deal with the next time as they go "but we've done this and this, why is it now a problem"
Matthew George
Enex trials
the Enex report is flawed, they are using data from the Telstra trial which worked by dns blocking to say that the speed will not be affected but as some items on the blacklist will not be websites but videos on YouTube and wikipedia articles they will have to be redirected and censored which will affect the speed of YouTube and wikipedia.
Post new comment