James Purser [INSERT WITTY CATCHPHRASE HERE]

During last weeks Broadband Future event the focus was on the future, what changes would the NBN bring to this country, how would it change the delivery of medical services, media production and so on and so forth. People were excited and looking forward to the new challenges.

However during these discussions no one was really willing to tackle the elephant in the room. The Governments proposed mandatory ISP filtering programme. Perhaps we thought that a government that was forward thinking enough to develop the NBN would finally recognise the futility of what they were proposing.

Turns out we were wrong. Yesterday Senator Conroy finally released the report of the Live ISP filtering trial claiming that it proved the claim that it was possible to filter with "100% accuracy" while at the same time offering little to no impact on network performance. Based on this he declared that he was going to move forward with plans to submit legislation to the house to require ISP's to implement the mandatory filtering programme.

Sigh.

There are two problems with the programme that Conroy is proposing:

Suitability For Task:

The report is explicit in declaring that the filtering trial worked only when strict conditions were met.

• The content being filtered was being delivered by HTTP
• The site being filtered was not a high traffic site (apparantly sites such as Youtube will crash the filtering service)
• The user being filtered only uses their ISPs DNS servers

The report is also explicit in declaring that the filtering service cannot filter the following:

• Peer to Peer Networks
• Chat rooms
• Non HTTP traffic
• Secured Tunnels (VPNs and so on)

All of which means that the Filter Programme as proposed is actually not just the elephant in the room, but it's the white elephant in the room. It will not and cannot prevent the acquisition of illegal material via the internet, rendering it essentually useless.

Scope Creep:

The ACMA list is built upon the concept of material that is refused classification or would be refused classification.

As we've already seen with the subject of an R18+ classification for games, the electronic world seems to be treated differently by Government than the literary or old media world. Neither side of politics fills me with confidence that they would be able to resist the urge to declare more and more online content to be "off limits".

Right now, the off limits topics include stuff that we can all agree is bad - beastiality, kiddie porn, sexual violence. That's fine, no one is going to argue that any of that is good. However also off limits are anything showing, advocating, demonstrating or providing instruction on federal crimes or drug use.

Well what's so bad about? that you ask.

Plenty, right now, ACMA is perfectly within its rights to add sites that advocate or provide instruction on the following:

• Euthenasia
• Not voting in federal elections
• Distribution of Computer Games that would probably get an R18+ rating if there was one, but there isn't so there.
• Secondary Boycotts

And other controversial topics that might be in breach of Federal criminal law.

There is nothing in the package that I can see that will prevent any future government from imposing it's own brand of morals on this list, adding topics like planned parenting (abortion is evil!), Religious Criticism (of all or any religions) and the like. When people talk about slippery slopes, it sounds like a cliche (and it usually is), however it's a well known fact that after you've done something once, it becomes a lot easier to do it a second and third time.

What To Do:

So what can we do about it?

First of all, talk about it. Tell your friends and family about the real implications of the programme. The main stream media doesn't seem to be hitting this topic too hard, so until they do, we need to be the ones spreading the word.

Talk to your local representative. Find out who your local federal rep is (to find out I recommend the excellent resource at Open Australia). Send them a letter (don't send them an email). Make an appointment to talk to them directly. DO NOT yell, scream and abuse them. DO NOT treat them like idiots. Be respectful and put forward your arguments in a constructive manner.

Talk to the media. If the MSM finds that there is enough attention to this topic they will cover it. Send letters, call your local radio/tv station, organise events (don't do street theatre though, it doesn't help anyone ;)).

So that's my thoughts on it. Let me know what you think.