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Cloud alliance sides with Optus on copyright

OzHub, the Macquarie Telecom-led cloud computing alliance, has come down firmly on the side of Optus over the copyright controversy surrounding Optus TV Now, warning that any moves to change the law "risk branding Australia a global luddite state."

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How to build a successful Internet filter

Opinion and Analysis

Sen. Conroy has obviously received rather poor advice.  If he follows these instructions, he'll have an unbreakable Internet filter.

Implementing a simple 'black-list' filter can never work – just ask the Chinese and the highly porous "Great Firewall of China."  What we need to do is become much more aggressive.  Here's how.

Firstly, ban all HTTPS connections.  These can be used to encrypt who-knows-what kind of content.  And that's the problem – because the content is encrypted, the Conroy acolytes (Conrytes for short) can't see it.  And if they can't see it, they can't be sure it's safe for innocent eyes.  Best to stop all of it.

Next, we have to ban all proxy servers.  Proxy servers are bad, very bad.  They allow an Australian-based PC to appear as if it is somewhere else in the world.  Now we can't have that!  Proxied connections will have to become illegal, otherwise, it would be far too easy to bypass the filters.

TOR & related 'private path' networks.  Hold me back!  You mean that supposedly innocent people can become conduits for others to access banned material?  Ban both of them!

VPNs.  The big problem with a VPN is that, not only is it a secured connection, it allows a person to connect to a remote server (which could be anywhere in the world) and from there connect to the Internet.  Shock.  Horror!  This totally bypasses any filtering.

Peer-to-peer networks.  OK, they really only allow file downloads, but those files might include details on the latest bypass methods or even step-by-step instructions on how to do it.  Better-still, what if the file was a screen-cam capture of a walk-through on a banned site?

File encryption and steganography.  This is the probably biggest hole in the Chinese national firewall.  Seemingly innocuous sites can contain hidden content in entirely unexpected places.  I'm told that an apparently innocuous florist's site contained a daily wrap-up of the world news content of CNN.

Instant Messaging has to be banned. 



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