Internet Censorship

[Hubbs]

Not wanting to state that I use such sites but the recent block of The Pirate Bay by many UK ISP's has caused much outrage and worry to people all over the world.

Yes we all know the reasons why major companies have pushed for such actions but is this now leading towards complete internet censorship/monitoring/blocking/banning etc...and limiting peoples rights to the internet?

http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2012/may/pirate-parties-hit-out-at-censorship-following-dutch-ruling-on-the-pirate-bay-proxies/

http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-enjoys-12-million-traffic-boost-shares-unblocking-tips-120502/

Its a tough cookie I realise but I can fully see what it happening here, first its torrent sites, then maybe its porn, then perhaps its anything which is deemed 'unsuitable' or 'unfit' for public view which could be any manner of things.

At what point does something become distasteful or offensive that large companies or whoever can order ISP's to block them??

Are we destined for a Big Brother type internet where you are told what you can look at or go to? who has the right to do this??

Isn't the internet suppose to be for the people? a place of universal free speech, ideas and creativity?

This is a good example, at what point is something deemed blockable? how long before everything that isn't 'nice and family orientated' gets blocked??
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9717000/9717578.stm
This interview is rather worrying as you can tell they really wanna block lots more.

Another example, I enjoy this British magazine, its very popular and adult only, but its very touch and go with subjects, is this a blockable site? I'm sure some people would like to block it.
http://www.bizarremag.com/

I'm not saying I fully agree with EVERYTHING that can be seen online but it is worrying that this type of thing is now becoming prominant, I pay for broadband so I expect to be able to go where I wish without blocks, like many I don't like being told what I can or can't see.

It seems this move by the courts has caused quite an stir amongst net users, things could get interesting.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/255331/the_pirate_bay_supporters_hack_virgin_media.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Anonymous-Pirate-Bay-DDoS-Virgin-Media-TalkTalk,15575.html

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/899184-the-pirate-bay-co-founder-to-take-multi-million-pound-case-to-eu-court


What does everyone think?

[deezelboy]

Well, the legislation often seems to be completely out of touch with the technology in these matters.

Take the Pirate Bay block - ISPs are just removing the Pirate Bay listing from their DNS records in order to comply with the legislation. Which means that if you simply use the Pirate Bay's IP address, or if you change your default DNS lookup from your ISPs to someone else's, it's not blocked any more. So... not very effective if you know what you're doing (and, given that you're connected to the internet, it's very easy to find out what you should be doing in order to circumvent blocks if you don't already know!).

I don't think this kind of legislate internet censorship is in any way a particularly good thing, but it's often implemented so ineptly that the tech solutions to bypass it have been around much, much longer and are easy to implement if desired.

Now, filtering of search results... That might have some pretty serious implications.

[beckmen]

You're not going to stop piracy. Not unless you go really nuts. However, stuff like banning certain websites might take the edge off. Casual pirates won't have the patience to find a workaround, so it'll be less rampant. But those who are determined...will almost always find a way 'round.

As long as everybody doesn't go too nuts, the internet won't be broken. However, I am not very convinced that Hollywood will allow this to happen. I have a feeling they will want to clamp down, even if piracy is cut in half. Kevin Feige needs that third yacht, and Tom Cruise needs that fourth house.

[Hubbs]

My thread on JoBlow
http://www.joblo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145765

Some good points.