Cleaning up the Net: see how easy it is to removal illegal content, Senator Conroy

As late as last Friday the media were still questioning Senator Conroy and the Rudd Government's motives for seeking to impose mandatory censorship on Internet access from Australia and Perth Now was giving a somewhat tongue-in-cheek example of one of the most common forms of the unintended consequences of such censorship.

The Dept. of Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy informs that the upcoming trial of national ISP-level filtering will have funding for those ISPs participating.
The Minister tells us that the Rudd Government is committed to spending many millions in establishing this national censorship.

It seems that taxpayers will probably pay thrice over - for conducting the live trial, for the Australia-wide implementation of the filtering system and as an additional service charge to cover ongoing costs in every monthly account they receive from their ISP after that.

What Conroy is careful not to point out is that for the cost of an email, the Rudd Government and ACMA can get search engines like Google to remove illegal and/or offensive content, as these snapshots from Chilling Effects clearly demonstrate.

In total literally thousands of take down notices have been received over the years by search engines, web sites and blogs in relation to illegal/inappropriate content, copyright infringement or defamation. I have yet to hear of a serious complaint about pornographic or offensive content not being acted on.

NB: the NSW Parliament is now in possession of its own November 2008 E-brief on Internet filtering which raising many of the concerns expressed elsewhere about the Rudd-Conroy Great Firewall of Australia.

North Coast has multiple wins in the 2008 NSW Tourism Awards

Over 700 guests were wined and dined at the NSW Tourism 2008 gala dinner and awards presentation last week.

The NSW North Coast showed that is was up there with the best the state has to offer.

Gold Award Pet Porpoise Pool - Coffs Harbour
http://www.petporpoisepool.com/

Gold Award Clarence River Tourism - Clarence River and Clarence Coast Visitor Information Centres
http://www.clarencetourism.com/

Silver Award Southern Cross University - School of Tourism and Hospitality Management
www.scu.edu.au/schools/tourism/

Silver Award BIG4 North Star Holiday Resort - Hastings Point
http://www.northstar.com.au/

Bronze Award Lismore Visitor Information Centre
http://www.visitlismore.com.au/

Everyone's lining up for a George Dubbya 'closing down sale' presidential pardon

I've always found US presidential pardons a fascinating subject - Jimmy Hoffa, Richard Nixon, Deep Throat, Caspar Weinberger, Marc Rich and Patty Hearst received them to name just a few.
Outgoing presidents often hand out these pardons as they pack their bags to leave the White House for the last time.
Already George Dubbya is getting a request or two according to media reports and Conrad Black, Michael Milken, Marion Jones, John Michael Lindh, Scooter Libby have all been mentioned as possible lucky dip winners.

Bill Clinton is often accused of having been profligate in handing out 140 'going away' pardons on his final day.
Including one for his brother Roger with the convenient cover of "aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of a false corporate tax return", which is not a good look in Hillary's bid for Secretary of State in the Obama Administration.

But David Latt at The Huffington Post wonders if Bush may have to go even further and pardon virtually everyone who worked for him given the constitutional and human rights excesses during his tenure and concludes:
"So, the question of the hour is: Who will President Bush pardon before he leaves office? Will he put himself at the top of the list?"

Malcolm Turnbull attempts to rain on Kevin Rudd's birthday parade

No wonder Malcolm Turnbull wanted a spot on the televised National Press Club podium today - it was Kevin 07's first birthday as Australian Prime Minister.

Big Mal has posted the transcript of this speech - in which he does his level best to paint the bleakest picture of the national political and financial situation - on his web site.

Nice try, Mal - but is anyone listening?

Speech transcript here.

Time to fess up - how many Tier 1, 2, & 3 Australian ISPs have signed up to trial the Great Firewall of Australia?

The issue of a national mandatory ISP-level Internet filtering system being introduced in Australia is of more than passing interest to North Coast Voices and many others in rural and regional areas.

Firstly, this blog is administered via a dial-up account and many of our contributors use the same type of Internet connection.

Secondly, all the blog contributors live in regional New South Wales where both broadband and dial-up speeds are already somewhat erratic.

Thirdly, any diminution in Internet function or speed is likely to cripple access to publication on this group blog.

Fourthly, it is beyond the financial capability of this blog to switch to a more expensive (and it must be said, regionally unreliable) broadband connection.

So before the Christmas Eve starting deadline for the Federal Government's trial of the Rudd-Conroy Great Firewall of Australia; would those ISPs who have lodged expressions of interest concerning participation in this censorship trial please put up their hands (I know that some ISPs will have approached the relevant government department because the 18 November EOI deadline has past).

For its own satisfaction North Coast Voices would like to identify those ISPs which think that:
a) the 475 online content complaints, acted on by ACMA in 2007-08 (which related to content that was prohibited or potentially prohibited under the Broadcasting Services Act and including some overseas online gambling sites ) are reason enough to introduce mandatory Internet censorship to this country;
b) indiscriminately blocking up to 10,000 sites identified by ACMA on a 'blacklist'( which may contain lawful content) is a reasonable thing to interpose between the ISP-User contract;
c) taking part in the trial of a filtering system which one of its supporters admits can only potentially block 30-40% of all p*rn sites (and won't block those who regularly access this type of online content) is justified at any level;
d) participating in a 6 week trial that will without consultation impose on the client a combination of dynamic analysis filtering, IP versus URL filtering and DNS poisoning etc., is in the best interests of their business;
e) existing ISP clients will meekly accept any additional account charge allowed under the trial's Draft Deed of Agreement;
f) customers who are negatively impacted by this trial are actually going to use snail mail to inform ISPs that their Internet connection is crippled, rather than just voting with their feet and moving to an ISP not taking part in Senator Conroy's madness; or
g) that Senator Conroy will still respect them in the morning.

Pic from Cleanfeed

• ACMA Annual Report 2007-08
  
• Internet Service Provider Content Filtering Pilot: Technical Testing Framework, November2008
  
• Draft Deed of Agreement for Filtering Pilot
• Filter supporters talk, Australia listens
  
• Cleanfeed at Whirlpool
  
• ACMA and filtering history at Libertus
  
• Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy

First anniversary of the day Australia kicked John Howard out on his a*se!

A small reminder of some of the things which preoccupied us as we went to the polling booths on Saturday 24 November 2007.

Cartoon from First Dog On the Moon

What the heck - take the day off work and celebrate our national good fortune.

Getting the lowdown on PETA and the sheep

The Australian wool industry appears to have suffered a nervous crisis last week when Australian Wool Innovation elected a board which might be perceived to be against the 2010 industry deadline for abandonment of the practice of mulesing sheep.

Now I can sympathise with the graziers frustration at trying to keep to this timetable in the middle of the longest Australian drought in living memory.
However the RSPCA has a point when it speaks of disappointment if the push to end or severely limit this management practice does not go ahead as planned.
Many in this country were quietly thankful that the wool industry was moving away from viewing mulesing as the principal option to prevent fly strike in sheep.

One gets the sense that our farmers are revolting not just because they are faced with significant change or additional financial costs, but because the U.S. based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) successfully led the anti-mulesing charge in the media.

PETA is not always known for taking a balanced position on every issue.
In fact at times this organisation can act like an hysterical pain in the posterior.
Nevertheless, it is a powerful lobby group which has been running for thirty-eight years with a membership of around 1.8 million world-wide and, on the issue of mulesing as it is currently practiced it does have a good point.

Not only does PETA have a large membership; it has a budget that would put many other similar lobby groups to shame:

Income Statement (FYE 07/2007)

Revenue
Primary Revenue	$28,858,103
Other Revenue	$1,753,581
Total Revenue	$30,611,684
Expenses
Program Expenses	$25,417,759
Administrative Expenses	$1,312,701
Fundraising Expenses	$3,680,667
Total Functional Expenses	$30,411,127
Payments to Affiliates	$0
Excess (or Deficit) for the year	$200,557
Net Assets	$16,164,783

Its leadership wage bill appears to make only modest inroads into this budget, with individual annual salaries ranging from about US$34,000 - $79,000, and it is not afraid of commencing litigation in furtherance of its aims.

So perhaps our farmers and graziers should think again about dragging feet on this issue.
It would seem that baulking over mulesing could result in all pain and no gain for the industry during a period when it is bound to be affected to some degree by the global financial crisis.