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HI Everyone<div><br></div><div>This summary of the Australian filtering regime is about the best I have seen - from one of the ISOC-AU Directors, Dr Paul Brooks. The Minister's press release is at <<a href="http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/115">http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/115</a>>, which has links to the actual test, plus consultation paper. Happy reading.<br><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; "><div>Kind regards</div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div>Holly Raiche</div><div>Executive Director,</div><div>Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU)</div><div><a href="mailto:ed@isoc-au.org.au">ed@isoc-au.org.au</a></div><div>Mob: 0412 688 544</div><div>Ph: (02) 9436 2149</div><div><b style="font-weight: bold; "><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></b></div><div><i style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">The Internet is For Everyone</span></span></i></div><div><i><br></i></div></span><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Paul Brooks <<a href="mailto:pbrooks@layer10.com.au">pbrooks@layer10.com.au</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">22 December 2009 2:46:49 AM</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">"Charles Mok (gmail)" <<a href="mailto:charlespmok@gmail.com">charlespmok@gmail.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Cc: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="mailto:pubpol-wg@elists.isoc.org">pubpol-wg@elists.isoc.org</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>Re: [Pubpol-wg] Mandatory Internet filtering legislation in 2010 in<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Australia</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> Charles Mok (gmail) wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:7cd8c34e0912152252r19696062j5b21095f757b68ed@mail.gmail.com" type="cite">Now sure if this is a related topic for this list, but...<br> </blockquote> Possibly not, but lets give it an airing in case.<br> <blockquote cite="mid:7cd8c34e0912152252r19696062j5b21095f757b68ed@mail.gmail.com" type="cite"><br> News just out from Australia that Stephen Conroy will push for legislation of mandatory Internet filtering at ISPs, any scope from Auistralia and views? Can someone from ISOC AU give us a view from down under?<br> </blockquote> <br> The Australian government has been running an Internet filtering trial for several months, aiming to demonstrate whether or not mandatory Internet filtering is feasible or not - feasible in the sense of whether or not it appreciably slows down Internet access performance (as claimed by opponents), and look at the level of accuracy and false negatives/false positives that occur leading to underblocking or overblocking.<br> <br> Note the trial is NOT aimed at stopping copyright material being shared. It is aimed (apparently and after much debate about clarification) at blocking 'Refused Classification' material from being accessed - material such as kiddie-porn, gross indecency, material that is not permitted in print form, and is not permitted to be hosted on servers located in Australia. For this reason its probably off-topic for this list.<br> <br> After sitting on the test report from an independent test agency (who worked with several ISPs) for 3 months, the Australian Government has released the test report, claiming the report shows that filtering is viable and does not slow down Internet access, and so with objective proof on their side they now propose to legislate to make ISP filtering mandatory.<br> <br> 'Filtering' is fairly simplistic - ISPs are provided a blacklist of between ~1000 URLs now (up to ~10,000 in future apparently), and are asked to ensure that no HTML request for a URL on the list gets through.<br> There is no dynamic content determination, there is no expectation of filtering other protocols other than HTML (especially P2P), and the report recognises there are several relatively straightforward ways to circumvent the system, such as HTTPS, encrypted VPNs, and so forth.<br> Currently, the list is built up of URLs that members of the public have found, complained to the authorities about, the content at the URL has been evaluated, and the conclusion is that the material is, or is likely to be if evaluated by someone from the censorship review board, considered as to be so bad as to be refused any valid classification such as G, PG, R, X, etc. - yes, the blacklist is built manually.<br> <br> Critics of the test report highlight:<br> 1) the maximum speed access line tested to show that no slowdown occurred was 8 Mbps, despite the test criteria supposedly covering up to 12 Mbps, and despite the Australian government working to deploy a FTTP NBN with access links up to 100 Mbps access links<br> 2) the number of user links tested was too low to generate a meaningful traffic load to test the performance of the filtering (URL blocking) solution significantly - one ISP involved in the trial had the filtering solution under test for only 15 customers, as each ISP involved had to deploy the filter trial on an 'opt-in' basis. None of the filtering solutions were tested for scalability.<br> 3) The report itself highlighted it is not feasible to filter traffic accessed through HTTPS, P2P, IM, and other mechanisms than simple web traffic - including any sites using dynamic database-briven content where the URL varies with each access<br> 4) Mandatory filtering at the ISP level - done in this fashion - is unlikely to be effective in blocking any appreciable accesses by even casual browsers<br> 5) Mandatory filtering at the ISP level may lead to a false sense of security by parents leading them to reduce their vigilance and oversight of children working on the Internet.<br> <br> Telstra simultaneously released the results of their non-government-sponsored test program - which covered a higher load using just one solution, and cautiously agreed with many caveats that URL filtering was probably feasible - for numbers of URLs less than 10,000, and providing none of them were high-volume sites like youtube.<br> <br> This is an attempt to provide a balanced unbiased summary to those on this list - industry condemnation of the proposal and the report has been strident, and ISOC-AU will be preparing a submission to the government on behalf of members, and has already contributed to a separate report tackling the trials and effectiveness.<br> The test report page is <a href="http://www.dbcde.gov.au/funding_and_programs/cybersafety_plan/internet_service_provider_isp_filtering/isp_filtering_live_pilot">here</a><br> Comment and criticism can be found at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2773952.htm">http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2773952.htm</a> and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/web-filter-to-block-internet-nasties-will-compromise-nbn-say-providers/story-e6frg6nf-1225811143407">here</a> and a host of other places.<br> <br> I hope this helps.<br> <br> Regards,<br> Paul.<br> ISOC-AU.<br> <pre class="moz-signature" cols="86"></pre><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">_______________________________________________</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Pubpol-wg mailing list</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="mailto:Pubpol-wg@elists.isoc.org">Pubpol-wg@elists.isoc.org</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/pubpol-wg">http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/pubpol-wg</a></div> </blockquote></div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; 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