Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

unblockoz.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 121 posts

Re: UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

#71

Post by akjainaj »

nickonline wrote: post #64
akjainaj wrote: post #53

Why do they like to call it "censorship" when they just mean "piracy websites"? It's not like they're keeping you from publishing your thoughts about the government and the establishment, you just want to download series for free. I don't mean to say you shouldn't be able to download your favourite series for free, but please don't use words such as "censorship" that make it look like the gov is threatening to send y…

Do you understand censorship? This clearly fits within censorship as it's considered politically unacceptable. censorship, noun: the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.

This is not about the government "suppresing part of a film that is considered obscene" or "removing news articles that are politically unacceptable".

This is about you wanting to download movies or series without paying money to the people who made them. Movies or series that are completely legal to watch and sell in Australia, as long as you pay the people who worked to make them.

Too many people masquerade their freeloading as political activism to feel superior. Sticking it to the man, eh?

And once again I respect the right to download or upload whatever you want, but making it look like you're fighting the big brother censorship when you just want to watch game of thrones, a show that is completely legal to watch in Australia, without paying for it is... childish

Re: UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

#72

Post by pbhjpbhj »

vacri wrote: post #69
nickonline wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bunch of convicts the lot of us.

For the record, we stopped being a penal colony about 15 years before the US stopped being a slave-using nation...

So, not yet then ... ah, you meant a legal slave using nation ...

Re: UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

#73

Post by pbhjpbhj »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #43
adentranter wrote: post #19

As an Aussie I find this pretty funny. Since they passed the law to make ISPs store your data ( which was a warning shot to piraters from my POV ) not many people's behaviours changed. Ie people still pirated. The difference between simply logging traffic and blocking certain sites means instead of being able to watch what I do, I'll be sign up to a VPN and they won't see any of my traffic. If anything blocking these…

I'll be sign up to a VPN and they won't see any of my traffic Don't even need to go to that much effort because this is DNS level blocking. Using openDNS[1] or Google's DNS 8.8.8.8 will work. 1. https://www.opendns.com/setupguide/

Tin-foil hat level speculation: those in power, the media corps for example, want you to use a VPN or fixed DNS so that the logs of your activity are all in one place. The alternative is trying to track which cafés you used, etc., just to get your full sites-visited log.

/tin-foil-hat

Re: UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

#74

Post by pbhjpbhj »

toyg wrote: post #51
dwightgunning wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some point all the interesting/useful countries to exit the VPN will be censored. Then it's game over.

No - then it's a business opportunity for smaller countries, with "looser" copyright rules and enforcement, to build a world-class VPN industry. The Switzerland of VPNs is a historical inevitability: even the rich and powerful need it.

And then we'll get countries being strong armed by "Western Democracies" to ensure top-flight talent and media execs still get paid 200x what the poor schmucks doing the actual work get paid.

Re: UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

#75

Post by watbe »

vacri wrote: post #68
mmjaa wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australians simply don't care about this shit. They've lived in an industrialised colony, with all its rewards, for too long - as long as they're still able to live the good life, who cares what the government gets up to .. Its a shame, because Australia has, in many ways, a culture that could produce great things. But its still ham-strung by its dependence on colonialist thinking in the halls of power.

What do you mean by 'colonialist thinking'?

Only a guess, but I think it means "the government knows what is best for its citizens".

Re: UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

#76

Post by akjainaj »

technion wrote: post #59
akjainaj wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aboriginal genocide? In Australia? Is this even a thing?

It wasn't far off.

I am asking because the Wikipedia article about "List of massacres of Indigenous Australians" claims that hasn't happened in about a century.

Re: UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

#77

Post by wil421 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #72
vacri wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the record, we stopped being a penal colony about 15 years before the US stopped being a slave-using nation...

So, not yet then ... ah, you meant a legal slave using nation ...

Article is about Australia yet people still have to take jabs at the US.

I'm not really sure what you mean anyway.

Re: UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

#78

Post by nikcub »

I've helped a half-dozen friends and family members in the past couple of weeks fix their net filtering. I usually do it by logging into their routers and setting their DNS servers to OpenDNS or Google.

A few things i've noticed. Most people don't know this is something that can be fixed. I think that will change in the same way adblocking has spread (ublock is a well-known brand amongst my non-tech family and friends).

Second is that the DNS change will likely only be a temporary solution for this first stage of blocks. It is only a matter of time before more sophisticated blocks are put in place - and there are other methods mandated by the law available after DNS filtering (including IP blocks)

I've also noticed an irony in this situation. The Australian government passed legislation for the copyright protection internet filtering at around the same time they passed their ISP level metadata retention laws.

The irony is that because of the copyright blocks Australians are seeking and learning about solutions such as Tor and VPN's, which make the second set of metadata retention laws less effective.

One of the positive side effects of the laws is that it doesn't address the demand for content (Australians are well known pirates) and users will seek out workarounds which will have the effect of increasing awareness of privacy issues and technical workarounds.

I tend to agree with Ed Snowden when he says that solutions to privacy are in encryption and technology - not in politics. Unfortunately governments are going to do what governments do - either in the open, or in secret.

Re: UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

#79

Post by apk17 »

akjainaj wrote: post #71
nickonline wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you understand censorship? This clearly fits within censorship as it's considered politically unacceptable. censorship, noun: the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.

This is not about the government "suppresing part of a film that is considered obscene" or "removing news articles that are politically unacceptable". This is about you wanting to download movies or series without paying money to the people who made them. Movies or series that are completely legal to watch and sell in Australia, as long as you pay the people who worked to make them. Too many people masquerade their f…

> This is not about the government ... "removing news articles that are politically unacceptable".

That's actually part of the problem. The government should close down illegal establishments, and not just be blocking access to them.

The other part of the problem: Once the gov can tell the ISPs what to block (a) the block list must be secret and (b) the process can be very easily abused, with 'overblocking' being the standard excuse.

Re: UnblockOz: Helps Australians reclaim their unfiltered Internet access

#80

Post by ue_ »

watbe wrote: post #75
vacri wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by 'colonialist thinking'?

Only a guess, but I think it means "the government knows what is best for its citizens".

That is hardly unique to Australia. Britain, Canada, NZ all have no problem at all with censorship, so much that they will even censor fiction.

These countries, one of whuch I am a citizen of, have not a single strand of libertarianism in government nor populace, and it's a shame.

Post reply on HN