[AusNOG] Public Internet Access Policies

[Narelle]

On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 10:33 AM, Sam Silvester <sam.silvester at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 10, 2014 at 9:08 AM, Skeeve Stevens <skeeve+ausnog at eintellegonetworks.com> wrote:
>>
>> All good... but it isn't for you or Mark, or anyone else to decide what someone else thinks
> their liability is or their policies should be.
>
> You do realise that earlier on you said:
>
> "IMHO, Filtering should be mandatory in public access areas."
>
> What's up with that? Why should it be mandatory?


Playing devil's advocate here - you can't display printed pornographic
items in a public place, and making a reasonable effort to restrict
porn on a corresponding service surely is a corresponding action. You
can operate an "adult bookshop" on the main street but there are rules
about entry and what you can display in the window. There is, however,
nothing to stop you reading a salacious novel whilst lounging in the
park, nor is there anything to stop you thinking seditious thoughts
(yet!). [I won't bring up advertising standards, page 3 girls and the
rest of the sexploitation that goes on in the mainstream media.]

There is an argument, however, that says: take the existing laws
applying to the "real" world and apply them in a similar fashion to
the "virtual" world.

The latter is the principle we have cited in the Internet Society for
regulation and law as it applies to the Internet. ie that the laws
shouldn't be "special".

So therefore, there is a rational basis for taking reasonable steps to
restrict the access to certain types of content. If only it were that
simple.

However, I definitely take issue with nobbling an Internet service to
the point where a person reasonably expecting that all ports will work
only gets http/https. That's going way too far. Reasonable steps to
mitigate viruses, trojans etc is fine but blocking everything but
http/s?

That said, if it is being offered by a private operator in a private
place, then it's arguably reasonable. But in a public place as a
public service?

Once again, if this is to happen, it has to be made absolutely clear
to the users that what they are getting is *not* the Internet. So no
stock trading, no VoIP, no telnet, ftp... lots of broken apps...

Remember the concept of 'network neutrality'?




Narelle Clark
narellec at gmail.com