[AusNOG] Conroy announcement on filtering

[Mark Newton]

On 15/12/2009, at 5:15 PM, Adrian Chadd wrote:

> Don't attack this at a technical level, or I'll just get off my
> ass and solve it in FOSS at a technical level just to make sure
> focus is shifted where it should be - ie, elsewhere.

I certainly haven't been focusing on technical attacks.

1.  There's no real problem to solve.

2.  Even if there was, there's no public demand to solve it.

3.  Even if there was, the proposed solution won't work.

4.  Even if it did, it's going to be massively expensive and unreliable.

5.  Even if it was perfect, it'll be administered by the same calibre
    of public servant that decided "V for Vendetta" was "Prohibited 
    Content" on the Internet in Australia, and will be so incompetently
    executed that it'll be as useless as a chocolate teapot.

6.  Even if it was perfectly administered by exemplary public servants,
    the blacklist will leak, thereby enhancing the distribution and
    visibility of banned material via the well-understood "Streisand
    Effect."

7.  There is absolutely no probability whatsoever that the blacklist
    won't leak.

Every Australian can see that (1) and (2) are valid.  Today's Enex
report counts as documentary proof of (3) and (4), and thereby acts
as an argument for the good guys, not the Government.  DBCDE are
perfectly capable and willing to prove (5) without our assistance, 
and ACMA have already shown that (6) and (7) are valid by allowing
the blacklist to leak 3 times even after IIA had already warned the
Department about its poor security.

Any one of those points standing all by itself is a knock down
argument against the Government proposal.  Put them all together 
and any rational assessment ought to seal it up as an open and shut
case.

  - mark

--
Mark Newton                               Email:  newton at internode.com.au (W)
Network Engineer                          Email:  newton at atdot.dotat.org  (H)
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