-Caveat Lector-
>From wsws.org
>
>
> World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
>
>
> WSWS : News & Analysis : Australia & South Pacific
>
> Australian government introduces Internet censorship laws
>
> By John Neilson
> 11 June 1999
>
> Back to screen version
>
> In a serious attack on democratic rights, the Australian government
> has introduced laws to filter and censor the Internet. The
> legislation, already passed by the Senate and due to be endorsed in
> the House of Representatives later this month, will see Australia join
> such repressive regimes as China and Singapore in practicing Internet
> censorship.
>
> Although the government claims that the Broadcasting Services
> Amendment (Online Services) Bill is a means of preventing access by
> minors to violent and pornographic material, the Bill's preamble is
> much more broader. It states that the legislation aims "to restrict
> access to certain Internet content that is likely to cause offence to
> a reasonable adult."
>
> Severely criticised by Internet Service Providers (ISPs),
> telecommunication experts and civil liberty groups, the Bill provides
> for complaints about Internet content to be referred to the Australian
> Broadcasting Authority (ABA), which will investigate and act against
> ISPs hosting “offensive content”. ISPs will be directed to remove any
> banned content they host. If they fail to do so, or fail to take
> "reasonable steps" to filter out such content hosted abroad they can
> be fined $27,000 per day.
>
> The ABA, the body responsible for regulating television and radio
> content, will maintain a blacklist of sites that receive a RC (Refused
> Classification) or X rating designation. Updated lists will circulated
> among ISPs, which will be compelled to remove and block these sites.
>
> Under the new law, the Internet is considered an "online service”
> similar to other "broadcasting services" and hence subject to the same
> laws as TV, radio and the print media. One fundamental difference
> however exists between the two services: whereas the traditional media
> are owned and operated by a handful of wealthy proprietors, the
> Internet has turned anyone with a personal computer and modem into a
> potential "broadcaster". In effect, the thoughts and ideas of the
> population at large are now subject to official censorship.
>
> It remains to be seen what effect the law will have. The technical
> capacity to censor the Internet is at best dubious. First of all, the
> scheme relies on maintaining a blacklist of banned sites. Presently
> there are an estimated 30 million sites worldwide, and growing fast.
> The ABA will attempt to monitor them with the help of an additional
> five staff. Secondly, there are numerous ways to bypass filters.
>
> It is not clear how ISPs will be expected to enforce the legislation.
> The Act qualifies itself so that "public interest considerations [can]
> be addressed in a way that does not impose unnecessary financial and
> administrative burdens on Internet content hosts and Internet service
> providers”. It seems that ISPs will introduce filters by way of a
> proxy server. A proxy server stores copies of every web page accessed
> by users so that future requests for the same page are downloaded from
> the ISP's own server rather than from the site itself, via the
> Internet. This is the filtering method employed in Singapore and
> China.
>
> Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), one of the industry
> organisations that has campaigned against the legislation, wrote in a
> submission to the Senate Select Committee on Information Technologies
> last April: "It will not achieve the claimed aim of protecting
> children, but it will infringe adults' rights to freedom of speech and
> the legislated principle in Australian law that adults should be free
> to read, see and hear what they want."
>
> The EFA has pointed out that the sheer number of Internet web sites
> makes it virtually impossible to censor. Even if the government
> censors 10,000 sites in its first year, this would represent only 0.1
> percent of web content. According to the EFA, because of the
> exponential increase in web sites, this would drop to 0.05 percent in
> the second year, 0.025 percent in the third year and 0.01 percent in
> the fourth year.
>
> Businesses in general have been extremely critical. Ozemail, which
> hosts more than 20 percent of Australia's Internet traffic, has said
> it could not block overseas adult content. Other companies have warned
> that compliance with the law will slow Internet speed dramatically,
> hamper electronic business transactions, now estimated globally at
> around $1.6 trillion annually, and end any possibility of Australia
> becoming a hub for networking infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific
> region.
>
> The cost to ISPs is potentially enormous. Millions of dollars will be
> required to establish proxy servers running filtering software capable
> of transferring vast amounts of data. An Ozemail vice president said
> filtering "requires special equipment, and it's exceptionally
> expensive. ISP-level filtering is not technically feasible or
> commercially viable on any widespread basis." If enforced, the
> legislation will speed up the already substantial market pressures on
> smaller ISPs, many of which could be forced to close.
>
> Why has the government proceeded despite these technical difficulties
> and vocal opposition from IT businesses? One reason was to gain the
> votes of Senator Brian Harradine, a right-wing Christian, for the
> passage of the Howard government's Goods and Services Tax (GST) and
> the further privatisation of Telstra, the telecommunications carrier.
>
> More fundamental questions are involved, however. Australia has the
> second-highest per capita usage of the Internet in the world, second
> only to the United States. The Internet is increasingly seen as a
> media source in its own right, where people can turn to for more
> independent sources of information than the TV and daily press. This
> has created a problem for ruling layers, who have relied on the mass
> media to direct and manipulate public opinion. The full extent of
> damage inflicted by NATO bombs in Yugoslavia might not be broadcast on
> TV, but it is detailed on the Internet.
>
> What the government fears is that ordinary people looking for answers
> to growing social and political problems, will seek and find on the
> Internet honest and accurate information and engage in an
> international and democratic discussion. The legislation demonstrates
> the lengths to which the government is prepared to go to restrict
> freedom of expression.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
>
> Copyright 1998-99
> World Socialist Web Site
> All rights reserved
>From Wash (DC) Post
> New E-Mail Computer Virus Reported
>
> By Bruce Meyerson
> AP Business Writer
> Thursday, June 10, 1999; 8:12 p.m. EDT
>
> NEW YORK (AP) -- A new computer virus was spreading across the
> Internet Thursday, infecting machines by e-mail like the recent
> Melissa virus -- but causing more damage by ruining computer files.
>
> Anti-virus teams in the government and at universities were trying to
> determine the severity of the outbreak of ``Worm.Explore.Zip,'' a
> virus that arrives by e-mail with an attached file that can infect a
> computer.
>
> Numerous anti-virus software makers issued alerts on the Internet,
> with one saying the bug had spread to a dozen countries. It wasn't
> clear how many computers or networks had been stricken so far.
>
> General Electric temporarily shut down its e-mail system Thursday
> morning when the virus was detected in the company's computer network.
> Microsoft cut off its corporate e-mail connection with the Internet
> for two hours as a precaution.
>
> Virus experts said the volume of calls reporting problems was
> substantially higher than normal.
>
> ``We've had 10 first-hand reports of sites that have been infected and
> a substantial numbers of second-hand reports,'' said Shawn Hernan, a
> team leader at the Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon
> University in Pittsburgh.
>
> ``Our belief right now is that it's spreading fairly quickly within a
> site but not as quickly from site to site,'' Hernan said, noting that
> his team is working with an anti-virus group in the Department of
> Defense to contain the outbreak.
>
> ``We do know that some sites have taken their electronic mail systems
> off line to slow the spread of the infection.''
>
> Trend Micro, a maker of anti-virus software, said ``five large
> customers with names you would know'' reported Thursday that their
> systems were infected. Trend Micro declined to name the companies
> affected.
>
> Worm.Explore.Zip arrives with a friendly message: ``Hi (Recipient
> Name)! I received your email and I shall send you a reply ASAP. Till
> then, take a look at the attached zipped docs.''
>
> The virus actually isn't dangerous unless the computer opens the
> ``zipped docs,'' a term referring to a compressed file sent along with
> the e-mail. By opening that file, a computer user inadvertently
> activates the virus.
>
> The virus then worms its way into the computer user's e-mail program
> and sends a copy of itself to the address of any e-mail that
> subsequently arrives.
>
> It also hunts through a computer's hard drive and deletes the
> information in files created by popular software, including the word
> processor Microsoft Word and the spreadsheet program Microsoft Excel.
>
> ``The payload on this virus is more destructive than the Melissa
> payload was,'' said Bill Pollak, spokesman for the Computer Emergency
> Response Team. But, he added, ``It's too soon to be able to say'' how
> much damage the virus has caused.
>
> The virus is the third to draw national attention since late March,
> when the Melissa virus overwhelmed computer networks with floods of
> e-mail. A more damaging virus named Chernobyl struck in late April,
> but did most of its harm overseas.
>
> Worm.Explore.Zip did only marginal damage at General Electric because
> systems managers had been watching for the virus after being alerted
> to it on Wednesday, said spokeswoman Pam Wickham.
>
> ``We had great containment because they spotted it coming into our
> corporate servers this morning,'' said Wickham. ``We had some minor
> (computer) disruptions today, but our systems have been up since
> mid-afternoon.''
>
> At least one smaller business didn't fare so well.
>
> ``We have the virus,'' said Rachel Albert, a spokeswoman at
> InterActive Public Relations of San Francisco. ``It's terrible. A lot
> of people lost everything they were working on.''
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> © Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
A<>E<>R
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