This video blog is by Dave Jones, who runs the eevblog. He let us know he’d done the video blog – thanks very much Dave for making the video and helping us spread the word against Internet censorship. You can also follow the eevblog on Twitter.

If you’re a YouTuber we’d love you to make a video against Internet censorship and let us know about it. We need content for our campaign!

If you’re an artist or a photographer, you can help us too – here’s one example of artwork that one of our supporters has made for us.

At Monday’s planning meeting, Josh Happy, who was there, has said he’d like to get a group of 5 to 7 people together to go and talk to Members of Parliament about our opposition to the Government’s plan to censor the Internet.

Leon wants to go and see Wayne Swan, the Federal Treasurer and Labor MP for the seat of Lilley (Ascot, Clayfield and Hamilton, to Brighton and Shorncliffe, and west to Chermside and Kedron.

Not everyone who wants to go to see Mr Swan needs to be in the seat of Lilley, and it would be great if this group started seeing other MPs as well and got some real experience in putting the case against censorship.

If you’d like to be involved, contact Josh via email at phantom_strider@hotmail.com or call him on 0429 088 098.

The auDA today suspended the registration of the domain stephenconroy.com.au, which was being used by those against the mandatory Internet filter which Senator Stephen Conroy has announced recently. The site has moved to http://www.stephen-conroy.com and they have posted the correspondence between auDA and the domain’s owner.

What is concerning to me is that they were only given 3 hours to respond to a request to provide evidence as to why they should be able to continue to own the domain. 3 hours. Lets look at the applicable auDA policies surrounding eligibility concerns.

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There has been a lot of talk recently about the proposed Internet filtering in Australia and many are possibly confused by the bombardment of information or the lack of clarity.

What is Internet filtering?
In basic terms filtering is censorship. (see Definitions of Internet Filtering on Wikipedia) The idea behind this censorship is to prevent the public from being able to view sites on the Internet which have been deemed objectionable or offensive. While this sounds like a good idea in theory many questions need to be asked.

What exactly am I being protected from?
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy claims the filtering is one of a number of new measures to help protect our families. The filtering will be in place to block child pornography, rape, bestiality, other sexual violence, instructions for use of illicit drugs and information about how to commit crimes.

So this will mean no more sexual predators?
Well… No.

Online sexual predators quite often trade materials such as child pornography on peer-to-peer networks and through chats. These will not be covered by this current filter.

This means we are looking at something which will more than likely be completely ineffective. Is the next step to block all lines of communication with the outside world?

Of course this will do nothing to stop the sexual predators that exist “offline” in the real world. Don’t forget that these predators existed before the internet and will continue to exist no matter what is being filtered.

Will this have an impact on my internet speed?
This really depends on who you talk to. Senator Conroy released the results of a month-long trial in which he claims ISPs (Internet Service Providers) were able to block well over 1000 sites deemed inappropriate without significant decline in speeds.

However there are many who believe otherwise.

What can we do about this?
The first thing I suggest is becoming informed. Do some research, Read as much as you can about internet filtering and all that is good or bad about it. Then come to your own conclusion. Don’t be told what to think by some government official. You have a brain so use it.

The next thing I recommend is writing a letter to your local Member stating your feelings on the matter. Why not write letters all the way up the chain. For some excellent tips on how to write a good letter please read Bernard Keane’s guide to writing to Ministers.

Thirdly I ask that you talk about this with everyone you know. There are a lot of internet users out there who are not informed on the full issue. Knowledge is vital. It is the key to our success as the human race.

Finally I ask that you get involved. There are a number of groups who are organising rallies and meetings across the country. In Brisbane we have a meeting coming up on Monday to discuss the issues at hand and what can be done. (For more details please click here.)

If there are no meetings or groups in your area why not take that next step and organise one yourself?

If you are unable to attend the meeting/rally you are still able to support. I believe a lot of people will be taking notes and more than likely photographs and video.

We understand that things will not be resolved in one day but this is the first step towards resolution.

I know I am not the most technologically advanced iPod in the docking station. (Sorry for the geeky pun.) but even I, the technologically challenged one have got some major issues with this whole internet censorship malarkey.

For those who don’t yet know, It now appears that our very own government has decided we are not competent enough to make our own decisions regarding the internet and will be filtering for us.

Back in March 2009 I wrote the following when this idea last raised it’s ugly head.

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Production of child pornography is a terrible industry which must be stamped out. I would have no problem with the Federal Government spending hundreds of millions of dollars working with local and international law enforcement agencies to stamp out this disgusting and illegal activity. Production of child pornography is where the victims are. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars to stop people who weren’t going to look up child pornography from looking up child pornography seems like a pretty dumb idea.

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