http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111255-Australias-Internet-Filter-Switches-On-In-July

http://mirror.wikileaks.info/wiki/leak/acma-secret-blacklist-18-mar-2009.txt

There are no words that I can type out that accurately express how I feel about this. Second link is a list of websites which would have been blacklisted if the government did this, sure some are very justified morally in being blocked, but it is the precedent that will be set that irks me.

Also - can anyone get me a Green Card into the US or whatever the equivalent is for Canada or the UK?

"not by the government but by the voluntary actions of four of the country's ISPs"

ISP = Internet services provider

So change your IPS and they will soon give in.

They have the right to do this but if they begin to lose customers they will change their ideals.

ISP*

Slight problem - Optus and Telstra are 2 of those, and they happen to be the biggest 2. They also happen to either outright own or have shares in other ISPs, so this may quickly expand. Add the fact that this hasn't been publicly announced yet over the news, and that the ISPs are likely to supress this news for as long as possible in the mainstream media, therefore it's going to be a long time before any meaningful resistance gets put up.

Sky? Virgin?

Thanks for the list of porn sites.

>>6 Lol

>>5 - Problem is lock-in contracts as well. It's quite possible that people are stuck with their ISP for up to 2 years unless they want to pay a hefty fee.

>>6 - You're welcome, but most of it is probably illegal depending where you live. There is also most likely child porn sites in there, so it's probably not the wisest to browse through all of them. But considering Australia is a country where they have made porn with small-breasted models illegal because "it encourages pedophilia", there is probably a whole lot of stuff in there that isn't controversial/illegal/morally-wrong (as dubious as a distinction that is)

>>8 That is a problem if they have a contract, I guess they will have to buy their way out or wait till it ends. But in the long run these company's will fall due to the fact that the internet is a free place and people wont be told what they can or can't do on it.

I have nothing against Porn but in saying that "Child porn" is wrong and should be stopped, so its a tricky one...

And they stopped porn with girls with small tits!? WTF some girls just don't have big ones lol

Sigh. What can I say?
Porn is porn, who gives a fuck? Am I going to look at Michaelanglo's David and go "OH SHIT A PENIS SOMEONE CENSOR IT
IT IS SO OFFENSIVE."? No. I won't. It's porn, it's natural, people shouldn't shy from the topic but instead discuss the matter more openly.

And just by visually scanning the list, I don't think there are any CP on it, and even if the site has it, every site has its own terms and conditions so I'm pretty sure they've removed it, unless they're retards.

I just love how the ISPs "volunteered" for this. It's not like the people should get a choice; I mean, look how nice those 4 ISPs are by "volunteering" for this. /endsarcasm

I swear, this is one of the worst things any government can do: enforcing what they think is good on the people, without any consensus of the people. Sure, they have the right goal: getting rid of illegal content. But it's not like this is going actually stop it. This filter has about as much chance of working as the PM making an announcement, saying "Please stop downloading CP."

Before you know it, they will be censoring anything they don't like and Australia will have become just like China (no offence).
I really hope this filter doesn't have too large an effect on my torrenting anime.

Also, one last thing I have to put out there: Told people crap would happen if Labour got in.