[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Electronic Frontiers Australia on Net-censorship efforts

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Mon, 11 Nov 2002 09:57:11 -0500
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: Electronic Frontiers Australia on Net-censorship efforts
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com


---

From: Irene Graham <exec@efa.org.au>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: EFA review/analysis of C'th Net censorship regime
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 13:42:26 +1000

Declan

Below message has been distributed to a number of Australian mailing
lists. Info below FYI, and feel free to post part or all to politech
if you wish.

Regards
Irene
======

When releasing the fourth report on the government's Internet
censorship regime on 21 August 2002, the Minister for Communications
Senator Richard Alston proclaimed: "Internet safety for Australians
continues to grow".

EFA has conducted a comprehensive analysis of Government reports on
the regime, in light of the Minister's admissions to the Senate that
official reports contain statistical errors exaggerating the alleged
effectiveness of the scheme, and reviewed the overall operation and
effectiveness of the scheme. We conclude there is no evidence or
indication to support the Minister's claim that the Internet has been
made safer. Our review and findings are contained in:

EFA submission to the DCITA review of the operation of the C'th
Internet censorship regime, 8 Nov 2002
http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/efasubm_bsa2002.html

(The Dept of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
(DCITA) is currently conducting a review of the operation of the
scheme, as required by the legislation to be done before 1 Jan 2003.)

Short summary of EFA submission:

- The ABA spent 83% of its Internet censorship efforts investigating
content on overseas-hosted websites over which it has no control.

- Approximately half of the prohibited items designated as hosted in
Australia were found in world-wide Usenet newsgroups, most likely
originated outside Australia, and were not taken down from the
Internet.

- The ABA's refusal to provide the URLs or titles of taken-down
Australian-hosted web pages, on the ground that such information would
enable a person to access prohibited content on the Internet,
indicates the ABA believes such content has not been taken down from
the Internet.

- Ministerial statements trumpeting the success of the scheme have
been, by the Minister's own admission, based on erroneous statistics.

- Misleading statements have been made by the government about the
proportion of prohibited content that is actual child pornography.

- The scheme exaggerates the outcomes by claiming newsgroup postings
removed from one Usenet newsgroup server as content that has been
removed from the Internet.

- The referral of prohibited content to scheduled filter vendors is
not followed up to ensure that the vendors add the content to their
filter blocklist.

- The application of film classification guidelines to static images
and text on the Internet is inappropriate and results in prohibition
of content online that is legally available in magazines offline.

- OFLC fees for classification, and review of a classification, of a
web page are exorbitant, costing approximately five times the fee for
an entire offline magazine.

- Online publishers have less rights in relation to review and appeal
of classification decisions than offline publishers.

- The effectiveness or otherwise of the complaints system would be
clearer if the outcome of investigations resulting from legislatively
valid complaints (i.e. from Australian residents), and information
received from other entities such as overseas hotlines, was reported
on separately.

- No information has been made available by the government about
successful prosecutions, if any, resulting from the scheme.

- The estimated $2.7M annual cost of the scheme is difficult to
justify given the limited outcomes achieved.

- EFA recommends that Schedule 5 of the Broadcasting Services Act be
repealed and the costly and failed Internet regulatory apparatus be
dismantled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Irene Graham Executive Director - Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.
(EFA) EFA: <http://www.efa.org.au>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




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