Oh, FUCK NO.

[highlyeccentric]

Australians will be unable to opt-out of the government's pending Internet content filtering scheme, and will instead be placed on a watered-down blacklist, experts say.

Under the government's $125.8 million Plan for Cyber-Safety, users can switch between two blacklists which block content inappropriate for children, and a separate list which blocks illegal material.

Pundits say consumers have been lulled into believing the opt-out proviso would remove content filtering altogether.

Oh, and this will slow our already ridiculously slow browsing speed.

NO, no and no.

Firstly, I would kind of like my government to trust me not to do illegal things. If I do something illegal and they find me doing it, then we can have a fight about whether the thing ought to be illegal or not, but first up, I want to believe that I have a right to make my own damn choices and cop any resulting consequences.

Secondly, I'd like to know how they filter 'illegal material'. Because this will come down to LJ eventually. Will they filter individual posts? Entire comms? I should hope there would be enough upset to stop them filtering the entire site.

THIRDLY, what kind of illegal material will be filtered? Will someone make an executive decision as to whether fanfic constitutes an illegal copyright violation? Because I'd rather like to see that hashed out in a court, rather than implemented by a task force somewhere.

THIRDLY PART B: I assume 'illegal material' means child pornography. But I imagine it will mean that, first of all, erotic fanart will go. And then what about fic? There's fic out there involving certain underage fantasy characters which does fetishise them by age. It squicks me, so I don't read it. Can we say again: I'd like my government to trust me?
There's also a lot of fic out there about teenagers in which the author/reader is positioned as an equal within the framework of the story. Hell, there are sex scenes in actual YA lit which I'd give an MA rating if it were my fic: last I heard no one was calling Tomorrow When the War Began child porn.
This is somewhat complex reasoning. I'd like the right to exercise my reason and morality for myself, thank you. I don't want some government committee telling me my fic is immoral. And I don't want them telling me it's not, either. Because what it comes down to is this:

Even if it is immoral to be reading Harry Potter porn, no one is getting hurt. Even if it *were* squicky and fetished the characters by age, it's fiction. Until someone lays hands or eyes or ears on a living, breathing child, I firmly believe the government should have no right to take any action against them. It might be squicky. They might need serious mental help. It might be morally wrong. But until there's an actual child involved, it's a moral question. And I don't want to be living in a society where the government thinks it can regulate morality.

~

Er. Hi, Dad. :D Hi, medieval blogosphere. *looks sideways*

Comments

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

Very well said!

Good lord, what a scary and horrible prospect. Are we China now??

Also, you can include that this thing is either a) going to be horribly expensive because it will involve a lot of human-hours to set up sophisticated and specific filters, or b) going to be horribly broad-brush and wipe out access to a lot of completely innocent sites.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Hey, that's a point. As K points out behind me, Australia and Australians are busy running around condemning the Great Wall of China, and cheering for those firewall-evading USB doodads which were snuck into China during the Olympics.

I wonder how one goes about getting a firewall-evading USB doodad?

going to be horribly broad-brush and wipe out access to a lot of completely innocent sites.
This is what I'm worrying about with LJ. daiskmeliadorn's brother took a screencap recently of the netnanny return for her LJ- apparently it has porn on it. (it doesn't). Net filtering software goes on the domain name, not the full URL. Are they going to make that mistake? I hope the Intarwubs rise up and stab them for it.

[sjazzmreow.livejournal.com]

As much as I intensely dislike the hideous authoritarianism of the proposal (even though I can't help but think child porn should be as fiendishly difficult to access as possible), I can't help but wonder though, is fandom really something people know enough about to consider a threat? Have Rudd or other will-someone-please-think-of-the-children types ever mentioned it?

Granted, given his absurd statements about the whole Bill Henson issue, it's entirely possible that Rudd wouldn't like even the more innocent parts of fandom, but LJ specifically does not present itself as a fanfic site, so it might manage to come out unscathed.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

Something like 10,000 per million of sites get blocked, under tests of the current technology.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I will note that the medieval blogosphere, for the most part, is not really very far from the Harry Potter fanfiction world.

...Or maybe that's just my perspective.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

No, I'm expecting we'll get caught in an automatic filter, not a specific one. Keywords and stuff.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Well, most of the LJ-based readers aren't. There are SRS medieval bloggers who still read this, though. Dr Nokes is one.

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

I hope the Intarwubs rise up and stab them for it.

I'm planning to link to that article on my LJ. Do you mind if I point people here for your rather excellent rant?

[avedaggio.livejournal.com]

Hi, medieval blogosphere. *looks sideways*

LOL.

I know what you;re saying. Were you around the last couple years when LJ decided to meddle with the fanfic folks? I no longer practice in, but am still a lurker in the LOTR slash community, and they were *pissed*.

[anachronisma.livejournal.com]

Fandom aside this raises important concerns about freedom of academia. Say you're writing a paper about what common household chemicals can be used to make bombs. But oops, you can't access any of the websites describing which chemicals in what products and how to extract them, because making and using bombs are illegal!

In another vein, I talk about human trafficking, rape, and slavery a lot on my awareness blog, clapham_circle. Pedophilia and child sex trafficking gets mentioned a lot. We're not for those things, we're against them, but will we be blocked as well, since obviously the buying and selling of people, and the rape of women and children is illegal?

Stupid, stupid. Let ISPs and browser services determine if they want to enable opt-in filtration content, preferably with a user setting what preferences (if any) they want filtered.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Go right ahead :D

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

*shrug* the LJ folks are probably safe, but I know there are still people out there reading this as well as the Naked Philologist on their google readers. But there are times when TMI is necessary!

I *was* around for strikeout, although not in fandom. And I've been trawling backwards through various HP comms, which involves sifting through all the strikeout related entries at a certain point. I could be extra paranoid as a result!

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

I imagine that there will be ways to get exceptions for research. I know of higher-level academics, for example, who've had to go into and use pro-anorexia sites as part of their research; another friend of mine turned down her best thesis idea because it would mean she would have to seek out and view actual child porn, and that squicked her.

But I don't like the idea of there being special unlimited computers in universities, or something, which would be the best way to provide academic access. THAT's just asking for the system to be abused.

As for the talking about/ supporting line, I guess it will depend which keywords they put in, and just how severe the global net nanny is. But it pisses me off on principle. :s

[tranquillita.livejournal.com]

I wonder how one goes about getting a firewall-evading USB doodad?

If it comes to that I'm sure they won't be too hard to find. Kind of like pirated hardware and software for gaming consoles - at least the DS. Over half the people I know who own a DS has an R4 (allows you to download and play games). Apart from the waiting period if they're out of stock, they're incredibly easy to get.

If illegal material includes copyright violations, there goes Youtube, fanfiction sites and a lot of LJ. If under the child-friendly filter, young artists won't be able to access website like DeviantART.com because they allow mature content.

What I'd really like to know, though, is whether people paying for "high-speed" internet will be reimbursed in any way due to the overall drop in connection speed. So much for the government wanting to make high-speed internet as widely accessible as possible... seems to me this is a pretty big step backwards.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

I want to know what happens to those NOT paying for high-speed interwubs? If you're on dial-up, and people still are, do you lose half your pitiful browsing speeds?

[tranquillita.livejournal.com]

Oh god. 28.8k speed.