Australia & Time Magazine: Stephen Conroy's Blacklist

Time Magazine features us this week. Yay?

The ACMA “blacklist”, as it became known, was promptly posted online, becoming a handy compendium of internet depravity in one convenient package — courtesy of the Australian government.

Am I the only one that thinks TIME mixed up the messages – the blacklist (not the filter) has been around for years and years and peer to peer’s impact is still being figured out.

My presentation at Broadband Australia last year about why filters won’t work once “Consumer ISPs” become the norm – and yes, reselling telco services are illegal but yes, 802.11s international standards mean that that law will be unenforceable.

I gotta tell ya though, blacklists have existed as long as I’ve in telecommunications (since the early ’80s).  For data, I remember Libya getting blocked a few times in the mid ’90s, by big American ISPs, so it’ s not that new.  Censorship has existed since the moment we put one person in power over a group.

Stephen Collins is bloggin’ mad too.