filters-fail-smh

Update 23/12/08: Thanks to front page pressure on The Sydney Morning Herald, the DBCDE has been forced to release this report. Download the PDF. I’ve published Conroy’s response here.

Asher Moses at Fairfax reports that a ‘high-level report’ on ISP filtering given to the Federal Government in February was kept secret. The report, which was prepared by the Internet Industry Association for the Howard government, found ISP filtering technology does not work, will significantly slow internet speeds and will block access to legitimate sites. It also found schemes for blocking ‘inappropriate’ content such as child pornography were fundamentally flawed.

Moses writes:

The report, based on comprehensive interviews with many parties with a stake in the internet, was written by several independent technical experts, including the University of Sydney’s Associate Professor Bjorn Landfeldt. It was handed to the Government in February but has been kept secret.

“I definitely think that what the Government is showing publicly … is such a small part of what they need to do in order to get this right,” Professor Landfeldt said. He said he believed the Government had not released his report because its conclusions were too damaging. “It’s definitely not going to be workable to get a very significant reduction in access to this (unwanted) content that is available out there, it’s fundamentally just not viable.”

[…]

Senator Conroy refused to comment directly on why the report has not been released or why the trials are going ahead given its findings.

Read more here.