Australia, a Country with a Moronic Government, to Block BitTorrent

Adam Frucci — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Australia loves censoring and filtering things on the internet, but its government hasn’t had its fill yet. Next up: blocking BitTorrent in the entire country.

I guess it shouldn’t be too shocking coming from a country with a Censorship Minister, but this is still pretty ridiculous. Said minister Stephen Conroy posted on his department’s blog recently that they were planning to test new filters to block BitTorrent traffic country-wide.

Australians, what do you have to say about this? Why are you electing jackasses like this that are turning your country into a less productive version of China?

AU: The US hasn’t got it quite right here – the government plans on trialling filtering technology of bittorrent in their upcoming trial, but it will be targeted at blocking illegal content as opposed to blocking all bittorrent. In any case, it won’t work and Conroy’s still a jackass. I swear to God, if this filter comes through, I’m moving to New Zealand.

[Slashdot via News.com.au]

Internet Filter Says F^&k Off Whakatane

Nick Broughall — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:53:29 +0000

Here’s a perfect example of why Internet filters just don’t work. Our New Zealand cousins across the ditch living in a place called Whakatane were given a rude shock when they discovered – thanks to an interested tourist – that their town’s name was being blocked by an American internet filter.

The reason? In Maori, ‘Wh’ is pronounced like an ‘F’. So that you understand the problem, say it out loud: Fakatane. Say it again: Fakatane. Do you see the problem? It sounds like ‘Fuck-a-tarny’.

So because of some phonetics, an internet filter blocked an entire New Zealand town. Sure, it has now been sorted out, but this is still a great example (and yes, we’re talking to you, Conroy) of why internet filters just don’t work – 9 times out of 10, they filter out perfectly acceptable stuff.

[via News.com.au]

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Australia, a Country with a Moronic Government, to Block BitTorrent

Internet Filter Says F^&k Off Whakatane