Australia: Hi, here's an expensive internet filter. Feel free to find ways around it. - Polidicks

[quote]A TEENAGER famous for cracking the Howard government's $80 million web filter will be among the first lining up to get around the Rudd Government's as well - and there won't be any penalty for doing it. The office of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy this week confirmed it would not be an offence to bypass the Government's planned mandatory internet filter once it was introduced. The admission comes after pro-euthanasia group Exit International began teaching elderly Australians how to bypass internet filters earlier this month amid fears information about euthanasia would be censored under the plan. Now Melbourne teenager and cyber safety advocate Tom Wood, famous for getting around the axed NetAlert web filtering software in 2007, says he will be among the first to try to bypass the Rudd Government's planned filter "for fun". Mr Wood, now 18, couldn't say whether it would be easier to bypass the Rudd Government's filter than NetAlert — but he was sure it was possible. "Well we can't know for sure because the software hasn't been released, but most server-type filters are pretty easy to bypass. The smart people will always find out how and share that information," he told news.com.au. Mr Wood made headlines in 2007 when, at the age of 16, he managed to get around the Howard government's NetAlert web filter in about half an hour. Unlike the NetAlert scheme, which offered Australians free filtering software to install on their home computer, the Rudd Government's plan will see filtering take place at the internet service provider level. That means companies that provide internet access like Telstra, Optus and iiNet will be the ones doing the filtering. The Government says it is introducing the filter, which will apply to all Australians, to stop "inadvertent" access to refused classification material. "This content includes child sexual abuse imagery, bestiality, sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act," said a spokesperson for Senator Conroy. The Government was aware that tech-savvy people were likely to find a way around the filter, the spokesperson said. "The independent report on the ISP-level filtering pilot trial found that technically competent people could circumvent filtering technologies," they said. [b]"Under the Government’s policy it will not be an offence to circumvent the filtering measures or to show someone how to circumvent."[/b] Mr Wood said the internet filter didn't address many of the "real" problems faced by young people online, such as internet addiction. "For the real problems online like security, privacy, addiction — especially with kids — filtering doesn't help them at all. Given the lack of education and services there are the moment I think that's what really should be given the most attention," he said. The Government says its cyber safety policy includes "a range of measures including education, law enforcement, research and technical-based solutions".[/quote] [url=http://www.news.com.au/technology/no-penalty-for-bypassing-conroys-web-filter/story-e6frfro0-1225854496213]source[/url] hurrr

waste of money.

Wait, they know people can easily crack it, they aren't prosecuting for doing so... Why have the filter in the first place!?

If they let people circumvent the filter, then why have a filter at all?

It's supposedly to protect you from "inadvertently" seeing shit you didn't want to see Like Goatse, e.g.

what if i wanted to see goatse

How stupid can they get?

I still can't believe this has come this far, well actually I can... but still. I hope it crashes and burns soon.

"WE'RE MAKING A FILTER TO STOP YOU ALL SEEING BAD THINGS "Uh I got through it miss" "WE'RE MAKING A FILTER TO STOP PEOPLE WHO ARE BAD AT COMPUTER SEEING BAD THINGS" [editline]11:01PM[/editline] Nice save, gov.

It's nice to see there are other stupid governments out there. [editline]08:01AM[/editline] I mean picking on us gets boring, doesn't it?

A filter itself is fucking retarded

nice Australia

the idea isn't bad it's making it mandatory which is dumb

I'm guessing it's still going to slow things down regardless, which is what I'm more worried about.

How remarkably pointless. From what I understand from various articles, they are introducing a net filter for a blacklist that is less than a third made up of child pornography sites, which is easy and legal to circumvent, at the expense of slowing down Australian internet even more so than it is already. This filter is also likely to violate the right of free speech, because it does not specify what it means by a 'terrorist act', which could be taken to be a free pass to ban anything considered supporting 'terrorism'.

Using a proxy would limit your download speed.

this is probably a bad thing because it means confidence in the filter.

Once they actually put it in place everyones basically going to riot (including the ISPs) and the governments going to feel bad for wasting what little speed we have.

I cracked my country's filter the first day they introduced it in Jan '08. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship#Bahrain[/url]

I suppose they want to wait and see how people get past it and then fix those holes.

Its just a huge waste of money. Anyone who wants to get past the filter will be able to easily, and these empty threats aren't scarying anybody

[QUOTE=demisemiquaver;21383830]I suppose they want to wait and see how people get past it and then fix those holes.[/QUOTE] You can't get rid of proxy servers, or things like Onion Routing and god knows what else, without even MORE dumb wasteful technology.

I could bypass Turkey's firewall by using OpenDNS.

Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Well if they filter what they listed, it won't affect me, however i fear that even if a website has a section dedicated to anything that will be blocked, the whole website will be :ohdear: [editline]01:24PM[/editline] Hopefully some kind soul will just release a fix for how to bypass it.

[QUOTE=dangwarrior;21383396]It's supposedly to protect you from "inadvertently" seeing shit you didn't want to see Like Goatse, e.g.[/QUOTE] Who wouldn't want to see goatse?

Australia :argh: Seriously, get your shit together Australia.

I wonder if someone could sue Australia if they browsed the web using this filter and ended up seeing goatse or something.

[QUOTE=ashxu;21384253]Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Well if they filter what they listed, it won't affect me, however i fear that even if a website has a section dedicated to anything that will be blocked, the whole website will be :ohdear: [editline]01:24PM[/editline] Hopefully some kind soul will just release a fix for how to bypass it.[/QUOTE] Not that I advocate anything that you might be attempting to access, but a very simple way to bypass it would to use a web proxy such as [URL]http://www.hidemyass.com/[/URL], [URL]http://www.kproxy.com/[/URL] or setup your own [URL="http://www.labnol.org/internet/setup-proxy-server/12890/"]here[/URL], as I have done for bypassing my school's proxy. Then it was the simple matter of redirecting traffic from the web filter to my proxy. Of course, you shouldn't be looking at any of this blocked stuff. Forget I said anything.

Australia's like woman. I don't understand them.

Nice to see tax money being put to good use :buddy: