[AusNOG] ISOC-AU position on filtering - with Skeeve's thoughts

[Mark Smith]

On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:52:37 +1000
"Chris Pollock" <Chris.Pollock at staff.pipenetworks.com> wrote:

> Mark,
> 
> > Isn't (thinking about) making money off of it tacitly 
> > supporting it? That seems to me to be a slippery slope. "I'll 
> > accept anything the government does, as long as I'm making 
> > money off of it."
> 
> But we're not talking about accepting /anything/ the government does
> that's profitable, we're talking about accepting an optional filtering
> scheme. 

I didn't think that was the origin of the question - it seemed to me
the premise was "the government is going to mandate a filter, so it's
probably ok for us to choose to provide a service of support for it".
This is distinct from being forced to implement by law, as ISPs would
be. Then again, the forwarded email was top posted, so I completely
missed the bit at the bottom. 

> As anyone who's had the bad fortune to get stuck in a lift with
> me while I'm talking about mandatory filtering knows, I'm vehemently
> anti-filter, but this is a much more simple business decision.
> 
> Step 1. Government says "Who wants filtering!  You can get it, ask your
> ISP."
> Step 2. Some people want it.
> Step 3. *your action here*
> Step 4. $_GET["profit"];
> 
> Regardless of how you feel about mandatory filtering, filtering as a
> basic concept has it's place.  Schools, educational institutions,
> anywhere that children have access to computers that belong to an
> organisation .. There's a risk there for those places if they don't try
> to lock down their 'net connections.
> 
> --
> Chris Pollock
> Technical & Install Manager
> PIPE Networks Limited
> 
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