Ed Vaizey, the UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries has admitted that he is in talks with ISPs to create a voluntary national firewall. Big copyright companies would petition to have sites they don't like added to the secret national blacklist, and the ISPs would decide -- without transparency or judicial review -- whether to silently block Britons from seeing the censored sites.
Peter from the Open Rights Group adds, "Website blocking is a bad idea, especially on a self-regulatory basis where vital judicial oversight is bypassed. The good news is that he has promised to invite civil society groups to participate in future discussions on the matter. You can help explain the problems by writing to your MP at ORG's website." Minister confirms site blocking discussions (Thanks, PeterBradwell, via Submitterator!)
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Wow, we really need to replace hierarchical DNS.
Hierarchal DNS is not the problem. Peer to Peer DNS (or any other such non-hierarchal system) won’t stop your ISP from changing the replies to your requests, it’ll just change the protocol they use to do it. Also, a peer to peer DNS won’t stop a national government from shutting down zones, it’ll just change the process they have to go through to do it.
Don’t waste time replacing DNS. Fight the actual problem.
if they want this to be a national thing, surely we can vote ourselves? big society and all that? we could petition to have the sun and daily mail sites to be blocked for various valid reasons
crimes against journalism
bare faced lies
some nude imagery
hatemongering
and so on and so forth.
A bit like China, Burma… and Australia (shame on you Australia).
yes it’s going yet another step further towards a dictatorship
Yes just like China et al, but the US has it one better; the “land of the free” can take down any site they like without due process, recently taking down 84,000 WEB sites.
China ain’t got nothin’ on that. The US calls it “Operation Protect Our Children†the same cover China uses, only China simply blocks the sites, the “land of the free” takes them down without due process. Now that’s freedom at work!
Not only that, IF you try to go to those sites you get a message telling you that you were trying to look at ch!ld-pr0n. Free speech my A$$!
No no no no no no no no. Seriously, how thick are our politicians?
I abhor the vile side of humanity as much as the next person, but censorship is not the answer, and is almost certain to succumb to scope creep for commercial gain: after all, how few duck ponds will a corporation need to ‘donate’ in order to have their own wishes added to the list?
People will always steal, rape, murder and otherwise-be-unpleasant-to-each-other, and education and awareness of that – however unpleasant to the little ones’ eyes – is the only thing that will lead to enlightenment in the long run.
I wrote to my MP about the DEA when it was originally proposed, and received nothing back save for a form letter passed on by one of Mandelson’s lackeys, which failed to answer any of the points I actually raised, in favour of simply repeating the same gibberish politico-nonsense that says what they planned to do, rather than why it was a good thing to do.
That, along with watching with amusement and quiet dispair as the MP I voted for turned his back on the massive student body in Bath that got him his seat in the first place, has given me very little reason to follow politics at all, let alone get involved with it.
Still, I sent a letter off through the Open Rights Group all the same. Thanks for the link.
Check out the Pirate Party UK, no way in hell they would do that if they got a seat – I think they have a candidate in Bath as well.
Cheers,
Jake Daynes
Representative
Pirate Party of Canada
You know, if the sites being blocked ARE kiddy porn, fuck ‘em. If some one disagrees, fuck them too.
If not, fuck the government and the ISPs for taking the best force for freedom and trying to make it a tool for fascism.
Christ what an arsehole.