You have to give Australian ISP iiNet credit for participating in the first round of the Government’s increasingly unpopular web filtering trials. In retrospect, it was the only way to evaluate the Government’s real motivation for such a draconian tactic.
According to news.com.au, iiNet have been quoted as leaving the trial due to the ambiguous nature of content the Government deemed as ‘unwanted’ – from iiNet Managing Director, Michael Malone:
“It became increasingly clear that the trial was not simply about restricting child pornography or other such illegal material, but a much wider range of issues including what the Government simply describes as ‘unwanted material’ without an explanation of what that includes." [Full Story]
We can only hope that further negative press and pressure from the public will force the Government’s hand and have this entire debacle thrown out. My only concern is the amount of time and money which has been wasted on this pointless exercise that the technical community had debunked before it even began.
When subject matter experts declare an approach invalid, useless or impossible to enforce, why does the Government insist on throwing money and effort at it anyway?
Hopefully consumers will give credit to iiNet by adding them to their preferred DSL subscriber list. It would surely send a message to Senator Conroy [bio] and the rest of the Government that Australians won’t tolerate state decreed censorship.
