Comments on: Five things I learned from the Insight episode on filtering

By: Dan Buzzard

Dan Buzzard — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:48:43 +0000

“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation”
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

By: Bob Bain

Bob Bain — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:13:15 +0000

@Steve: Great, they get shitty cause Telstra’s more or less got a monopoly on hardware, and now they’re going to create a new one.”

discussed at..

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2538347.htm

The new cables wlll have to be above ground which may mean an eysore and a problem for local councils BUT it may be possible to negotiate with Telstra to use their underground pipes to slip in the new fibre optic cable.

There’s a suggestion that Telstra may not be happy about this and the word legislation creeps in once again..

mp3 The World Today

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/twt/200904/20090408-twt04-broadband-streets.mp3

Bob

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:19:55 +0000

Great, they get shitty cause Telstra’s more or less got a monopoly on hardware, and now they’re going to create a new one. Thank you, Rudd. You’ve just shown how mentally challenged you actually are

By: Bob Bain

Bob Bain — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:48:24 +0000

@Danel “Seriously though, if choke points are included, let’s just bug them to tears like we’re doing now.”

As I understand it from yesterday’s 2JJ podcast there is no intention of including “choke points” (Senator Conroy) but ISP level filtering is still under trial.

It appears that legislation won’t be required as the FTTH scheme bypasses Telstra’s copper.

As for Senator Conroy it’s no longer “Conroy Fail” but “Conroy Nation Builder” (see Vex news)

http://www.vexnews.com/news/3777/conroy-fibre-to-the-home-will-be-his-legacy-to-the-nation/

“Federal Communications Minister Senator Steve Conroy, who is responsible for administering the controversial “clean feed” internet censorship, has been the target of the Australian internet community’s wrath.

In the announcement yesterday of a $43 billion spend on building a nationwide fibre optic network, he has been transformed from zero to hero, bringing home a nation building proposal that will ensure Australians have access to world’s best internet speed.”

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The announcement is the relatively easy part. Implementing will be tricky, as it always is. But if fibre to practically all Australian homes and businesses is delivered, as announced, Conroy will write himself into the nation’s history books alongside the great reforming ministers of our history.

We couldn’t be any more impressed.

It also indicates that those talking up his demise at the next round of preselections are unlikely to succeed

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Conroy is still targetting the legal “RC” category of material – which on my rounds of Sydney yesterday could have been purchased for $30 DVD or $59.99 Blu-Ray and incorrectly labelled “X18+” with what appear to be fake stickers.

Given the sorry state of the “Classification” website http://www.oflc.gov.au/ at the present time it’s hard to establish if these DVD and Blu-Ray discs have actually been rated “X” by the Australian Classification Board. There is a minor fine for selling misclassified material under the New South Wales “Enforcement” Act and it is an offence under the Act to sell unclassified material (subject to imprisonment).

Bob

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:01:13 +0000

As for FttH network choke points – who cares? At 100 Mbps I’ll just happily use my VPN to access my favourite pro-life sites.
Seriously though, if choke points are included, let’s just bug them to tears like we’re doing now.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:57:20 +0000

I reckon it’s all over. While Conroy wastes his time crapping on about the dire need for mandatory internet filtering, happily willing to slow down our current pathetic 10 Mbps ADSL2+ by a possible 80%, having thereby created a beast that has apparently totally broken its leash, PM Rudd takes the real issue into his own hands without a single reference to our beloved Senator: ditching the dismal tender process overseen by Conroy and announcing himself instead how the promised new broadband network will finally look, and looking like it’s been more or less totally taken out of Conroy’s fumbling hands by announcing a $45 billion National Broadband Network Corp. which wil provide FttH connections at 100 Mbps. Yea!
Aplogoies for that endless convoluted sentence. I’m excited, it just seems too good to be true.

By: Bob Bain

Bob Bain — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:02:27 +0000

@Glenn: “I read about the NBN plan. Just remember though that the mandatory filtering will be added to the NBN, then it would be the CBN – the Crippled Broadband Network.”

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From Crikey today (Stilgherrian)

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20090407-The-dark-side-of-a-government-run-NBN.html

And there’s a hidden benefit … By building the network from scratch, the government can make sure it has censorship-friendly choke points.

As a participant in the UNSW internet censorship forums told Crikey this morning:

Suddenly having an initially government-owned/controlled monopoly backbone operator removes all those pesky independent ISPs and backhaul businesses with contractual and ethical obligations to their customers from the discussion about if and where to install the big censor/filter boxes, who pays, performance hits, monitoring, security etc. And thus neatly bypasses the discussion which was finally starting to emerge about the suitability of the current plan to meet real needs, especially of those s-xting young ones.

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I attended the first workship but not the second so didn’t hear one of the key speakers from the United States..

http://cyberlawcentre.org/censorship/forum2.htm

Derek Bambauer (worked on Harvard’s Berkman Center OpenNet Initiative global internet filtering project, author of ‘Filtering in Oz: Australia’s Foray Into Internet Censorship’, Brooklyn Law School Legal Studies Working Paper Series, Research Paper No. 125, December 2008)

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It’s possible to download Derek Bamabuer’s paper – the most interesting point to me being that is would be hard for the Australia to “retrofit” a “would be censored network” into the existing framework – whereas other countries built their networks with censorship in mind – and with suitable “choke points”

At the moment there appears to be a strang mixture of optimism and scepticism. As I suggested earlier who could possibly question our need for a high speed FTTH network ? I believe they have a Fibre to the Home Network in Korea (somewhat more progresive IMHO than Australia).

I guess we wait and see. BTW. I don’t believe Fibre to the Home covers wireless Internet which is gaining in popularity – especially via the use of mobile devices such as “cell” phones and mobile modems such as those sold for laptops.

The Australian Computer Society have a apeaker next week from Optus who may have something to sayy on the issue.

http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=event&area=9001&temID=eventdetails&eveID=10133342699902

TELECOMMUNICATIONS
What NBN could have been

Level 1, 280 Pitt Street Sydney
(Sydney Mechanics School of Arts- In between Park & Bathurst St)

Date: Friday 24 April 2009
Time: 12:15pm for 12:30pm start – 1:30pm

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A technology solution will be presented which could have provided a truly competitive landscape in Australia, as well as ticking the “green” box with emphasis.

It would also have used the $4.7B of funding from the Federal Government to enable a Smart Grid solution in a uniform manner right across Australia.

Note: This appears to be a free event to non members of the Soceity (unless that’s a misprint)

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Bob (MACS)

By: Glenn

Glenn — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:08:52 +0000

I read about the NBN plan. Just remember though that the mandatory filtering will be added to the NBN, then it would be the CBN – the Crippled Broadband Network.

I don’t think I would care to see Labor progressing on this one. We should have had a much bigger broadband network five years earlier, but no one gave a damn about building one.

By: Bob Bain

Bob Bain — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:47:37 +0000

@Cameron: “Precisely and I worry the mandatory filter will be incorporated into the wholesale network, perhaps as a condition of the successful bid.”

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Well we now know who is going to build the NBN – The Australian Governement !

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/govt-to-build-national-broadband-network-20090407-9v5i.html

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Govt to build national broadband networkApril 7, 2009 – 9:24AM

The federal government will establish its own company to build the national broadband network.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the announcement during a joint press conference with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner in Canberra on Tuesday morning.

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The Acacia consortium, comprising wealthy businessmen and telco veterans, had been regarded as frontrunner for the project ahead of Optus and Canadian telco Axia NetMedia.

The nation’s largest telco, Telstra, was excluded from consideration after it failed to meet tender guidelines.

But it will be invited to take part in the new process, Senator Conroy said.

The new company will invest up to $43 billion in the network over eight years.

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Telstra will be “invited” to join the NBN initiative ?

I believe “forced to become involved” might be a more appropriate phrase.

Be prepared for “necessary legislation” !

Bob

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:01:05 +0000

Hopefully whoever’s replacing Conjob would have been keeping an eye on their predecessor’s movements. If they have been, then they’re sure to see the corner he’s gotten himself into and should be smart enough to avoid getting skewered himself.

That’s assuming the replacement cares about his self-interests.