[AusNOG] Happy new year / New rules for age-restricted internetand mobile content after the 20th of january 2008

[Bevan Slattery]

'nogers,


So, we'd need to do it ourselves - which would mean a high upfront cost
and added network complexity.    

 

If there is no vendor lock-in then it probably won't be as bad as people
make it out.  Anyone who has ever deployed a cache/proxy can run a
blacklist.  We ported our system across to the Cisco Cache Engine and
PIX line-up as well as others so it seamlessly intercepted traffic
without much configuration at all.  From memory they actually ported it
directly to the Cisco routers and even certain switches via IOS after I
left so you can push it from the router (yes the router version probably
runs like a dog, but that's Cisco for you).  Remote updates yadda yadda
yadda.  Same applied to squid (although had some threading issues which
limited bandwidth throughput - which I believe are largely resolved).
If they push out a http/ftp blacklist then there are plenty of devices
that it can work with without much fuss.

 

It's not going to be cheap but if most people opt for a clean-list, then
your requirements will be less.  If not, then your requirements will be
more.  Should the government pay for it?  Of course  Will they pay for
it?  Probably not.  Will it become a condition of your carrier license
or ability to operate as a CSP - most likely.  To be honest, if it is
just a http blacklist, then it will probably be but a speed bump in the
road.  Nothing terminal.  Much the same as dealing with letters from the
MPAA, TIO and alike.  Will it be a complete waste of time - absolutely.

 

One big caveat is that this is on the basis that the government must
provide the list of sites directly to ISP's so they can inject them into
their own system.  There is no vendor lock-in.  If they do a vendor
lock-in, then all bets are off.  It is the governments responsibility to
provide the list and if there is a mandated system then they should also
provide the solution *and* pay for it.  A real issue here is that when
the government get's their list out it will be embarrassing and shot
down in flames as being grossly inadequate.  God knows what will happen
then.  It will be a complete joke and the same filtering principles will
apply (filter on the home PC's and parent supervision).  Of course the
another caveat is that in the instance that they expand it to beyond
http.

 

As for filtering peered traffic, if it is peered in Australia (say
PIPE), then R rated content is not allowed to be hosted in this country
anyway, so Australia's content should largely be pre-filtered for
[hardcore] porn via take-down notices.  Even if those interfaces had to
be filtered it's still not a killer.

 

Cheers

 

[b]

 

PS:  I understand that the larger boys may have to deploy these devices
in each state.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ausnog.net/pipermail/ausnog/attachments/20080104/e2fa7925/attachment.html>