<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On 02/01/2008, at 9:10 AM, Alan Arnott wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="font: normal normal normal 10pt/normal Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; ">We have been battling this issue in Australia for a number of years and with the new Federal Labor Government it seems the battle is still not over.</div></span></blockquote><br></div><div>Quite. </div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I'd like to see the industry take a progressively more aggressive approach</div><div>to this issue.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>It has been kicked around for nearly 20 years now, on and off. The </div><div>Senate formed a Select Committee into online services provided by</div><div>BBSs in, what, 1990? Here we are now in 2008 and they're still</div><div>banging on about it.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Every time the Government investigates this issue they hand down a </div><div>terribly-serious-sounding report about how much damage online content</div><div>can do to society. With the benefit of nearly 20 years of hindsight, we</div><div>should all be able to see that those predictions have been dead wrong.</div><div>The children that the 1990 Select Committee were so concerned about</div><div>appear to have grown up into reasonably well-adjusted adults raising</div><div>reasonably well-adjusted families, and it's hard to see that several</div><div>decades of unrestricted access to unrestricted Internet content has had</div><div>any measurable impact on the health of society whatsoever.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>And yet it continues to be an issue. Year in, year out, politicians revisit</div><div>this issue, year in, year out they prognosticate about how awful the </div><div>situation is, and year in, year out they're completely and utterly wrong</div><div>about everything.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>How wrong is someone allowed to be before people stop taking them</div><div>seriously?</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Meanwhile, some ISPs have invested considerable amounts of money</div><div>around "clean feed" Internet services, offering filtered services to those</div><div>members of the general public who feel the need to go down that path.</div><div>If the Government mandates "clean feed" services from all ISPs, those</div><div>businesses are going to have their business models eviscerated by</div><div>having it commoditized out from underneath them. A niche player who </div><div>has built a name for themselves as a family-friendly venue is not going</div><div>to be able to compete with the big names when they're all serving the</div><div>same niche. If I ran such an ISP, I'd be dead-set furious at the</div><div>Government's latest policy pronouncements.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Here are some constructive policy suggestions for the Government:</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>1. The market has already provided clean-feed services. If the </div><div>Government believes they're worthy of support, it should support them.</div><div>Repurpose the $220m NetAlert organization to apply ratings of "family</div><div>friendliness" to ISPs, in the same way that the Dept of Health applies</div><div>ratings to health insurance providers. Use that as a vehicle to publicize</div><div>family-friendly options so that portions of the Australian marketplace </div><div>who desire such services know where to acquire them. I'm sure the</div><div>existing clean-feed ISPs would be delighted to have marketing</div><div>assistance from the Federal Government, so support from at least one</div><div>segment of the industry should be too hard to find.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>2. If the Government seriously believes that more than a fraction of </div><div>1% of the Australian marketplace wants filtered Internet, it should</div><div>put its money where its mouth is and start a filtered ISP. If it turns out</div><div>to be anywhere near as popular as they claim it'll be, it'll be immensely</div><div>profitable and they can privatize it five years later with accolades from</div><div>just about everyone. If, on the other hand, it sinks like a stone into</div><div>financial oblivion, then the Government will have no further excuse to </div><div>continue their policy of willful denial about the desirability of what they're</div><div>doing in this arena. We in the marketplace already know how popular</div><div>this stuff is, but the Government has spent many years feigning ignorance.</div><div>Perhaps the solution is to invite them to become a market participant.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Filtering is, at root, a 1990's solution to a 1980's problem. When filtering</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">was first proposed as a solution to inappropriate Internet content, most</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Internet content was carried by FTP, HTTP and NNTP, all of which can</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">(with sufficient application of money and poor network design decisions)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">theoretically be filtered. (Theoretically. I'll let the effectiveness of the UK</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">system speak for the practicalities -- does anyone seriously believe that</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">UK Internet users are ACTUALLY prevented from seeing whatever </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">they want to see on the Internet? And if not, is it worth the money?)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Times have changed: The overwhelming majority of content distributed</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">on the Internet in 2007 is carried by peer-to-peer networking</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">applications, which are inherently unfilterable. Even if it were possible</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">to build systems which would reliably block ACMA-banned websites,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">the usefulness of doing so is limited in a world where an encrypted</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">BitTorrent client can deliver precisely the same content to anyone</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">who desires to view it, with or without filtering. How much money is</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Government and Industry expected to spend to implement a system</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">that cannot exert any impact whatsoever on the single most popular</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">method of Internet content distribution? What, precisely, does the</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Government hope to achieve?</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Meanwhile: Has anyone heard anything about the FOI request The</div><div>Age served on ACMA to find out the download stats for their</div><div>filtering package? Alexa seems to think that linuxsa.org.au, a </div><div>specialist niche organization many of you have probably never heard</div><div>of, has about ten times the market penetration as NetAlert's heavily </div><div>marketed $82m filtering download site:</div><div><a href="http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?site0=www.netalert.gov.au%252Ffilters.html&site1=linuxsa.org.au&y=r&z=3&h=400&w=700&range=6m&size=Large&url=http://www.netalert.gov.au/filters.html">http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?site0=www.netalert.gov.au%2Ffilters.html&site1=linuxsa.org.au&y=r&z=3&h=400&w=700&range=6m&size=Large&url=http://www.netalert.gov.au/filters.html</a></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>That was money well spent, eh? I'm sure glad I pay tax, otherwise</div><div>I'd get fewer opportunities to point and laugh at such staggeringly</div><div>awe-inspiring displays of incompetent worthlessness, and the world</div><div>would be a far less entertaining place to live.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div> - mark</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>
</div><div apple-content-edited="true"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">--</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">Mark Newton Email: <a href="mailto:newton@internode.com.au">newton@internode.com.au</a> (W)</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">Network Engineer Email: <a href="mailto:newton@atdot.dotat.org">newton@atdot.dotat.org</a> (H)</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">Internode Systems Pty Ltd Desk: +61-8-82282999</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; ">"Network Man" - Anagram of "Mark Newton" Mobile: +61-416-202-223</span></font></font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Andale Mono'"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></font></font></font></div></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>