Australia has been known to have high levels of censorship. It should come as no surprise to those in the land down under that the government is planning to filter P2P and Bit Torrent traffic in live pilot tests. Senator Conroy went on the record saying "technology that filters peer-to-peer and Bit Torrent traffic does exist and it is anticipated that the effectiveness......

of this will be tested in the live pilot trial". It is a drastic step to filter out all P2P and Bit Torrent traffic as it assumes that those channels are only used for piracy. One example of legitimate use is the popular online game World of Warcraft. This game uses a Bit Torrent system of distrubution for its updates. Like any technology it can be used for both good and evil and choosing to block all on the account that it is only used for piracy is taking censorship to new levels. Unsurprisingly the idea has fueled a serious debate in Australia; "I'm aware that this proposal has attracted significant debate and criticism ? on this blog and at other places in the blogosphere," Senator Conroy said. Many of the complaints stem around the idea that Senator Conroy is acting as a big brother. If the Senator has his way and the filter is kept in place how far will the government be allowed to intervene? Simply blocking a technology for the potential illegal use is a preposterous idea as nearly all software can be used for malicious activities; it's the user who makes the decision.

Posted: Dec 24, 2008 6:11 am