I don’t really understand how the internet works. I click on the Firefox symbol on my computer and my home page appears. I know that this page requires my modem or router or whatever it is to be turned on or it doesn’t work; so by implication my home page is not “part” of my computer. So what have I accessed? A server or whatever presumably but where it is I have no idea. It could be anywhere in the world.
My view of the internet is much the same as Fenlander’s from a different thread.
>> the net hands the private person a power of knowledge and financial advantage that was unthinkable 20yrs ago.<<
Mr Cameron wants my internet provider to filter the websites that I can access. If I want to look at “other” websites I have to ask for the filter to be removed. As usual with political involvement there seems to be more to this than meets the eye. According to this article there has already been mission “creep”.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/03/david-cameron-internet-porn-filter-censorship-creep
Whatever websites are included or excluded is not as interesting to me as the framework behind the subject.
The internet is world wide. Can any particular country really, practically, regardless of legislation, block access to “foreign” content or what foreign is “imported”?
National* legislation can only be enforced within the boundaries of the nation, can’t it?
Does this form of censorship need world legislation to work?
Who decides what websites are blocked?
Who decides who or what committee makes this decision to block?
What criteria have to be applied to websites to block them? From the article >> The category of "obscene content", for instance, which is blocked even on the lowest setting of BT's opt-in filtering system, covers "sites with information about illegal manipulation of electronic devices [and] distribution of software" – in other words, filesharing and music downloads << This also requires “obscene content” to be defined.
Will this censorship creep result in more types of site, extreme religion or whatever, being blocked?
As usual the driving force behind this is to “protect the children”.
I don’t see it as my job to protect other people’s children in this context. Shouldn’t their online protection be their parent’s responsibility, at least out of school?
Is it true that most children are probably computer savvy enough to bypass filters so this is a waste of time anyway?
*IE British, French, American etc as opposed to EU or international.
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There was another Guardian report that suggested the word sex might be blocked even for an unonnected bunch of letter in a file name e.g. clothesexport.htm.
The really worrying thing here is that ISP's are imposing these restrictions on basis of messages from government, particularly the PM and without any relevant empowering legislation.
But of course we don't live in an elective dictatorship..
Oh no never.
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>
>> Whatever websites are included or excluded is not as interesting to me as the framework
>> behind the subject.
>> The internet is world wide. Can any particular country really, practically, regardless of legislation, block
>> access to “foreign” content or what foreign is “imported”?
Yes it can, the "great firewall of china" is one example. They have blocked access to anything they consider dangerous, including the whole of google at one point*
>> National* legislation can only be enforced within the boundaries of the nation, can’t it?
>> Does this form of censorship need world legislation to work?
if you mean, can a nation block access to anything in the world, yes they can, Pakistan blocked Youtube for example because it carried "anti islam" material.*
>> Who decides what websites are blocked?
>> Who decides who or what committee makes this decision to block?
>> What criteria have to be applied to websites to block them? From the article >>
>> The category of "obscene content", for instance, which is blocked even on the lowest setting
>> of BT's opt-in filtering system, covers "sites with information about illegal manipulation of electronic devices
They use keywords. Its a very blunt and stupid tool, thats why other "sex" sites that have valid content get swept into he net.
>> [and] distribution of software" – in other words, filesharing and music downloads
The ISPS are baring nearly every "torrent" site which is where the illegal downloading occurs. This is a separate issue not driven by national government but by court order on behalf of the content owners and occurred long before the "porn filter" was invented.
That article is badly put together mixing up many separate control and stuffing them under the "porn" filter banner. Clearly the author is internet illiterate. Or more likely not but trying to make a libertarian point and using falsehoods to make it.
*It is all of course a waste of time. Nothing is blocked into my internet feed, by the use of existing technologies to overcome them. In truth our internet is still remarkably free of controls, even compared to some libertarian countries.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 22 Jan 14 at 19:58
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>>The ISPS are baring nearly every "torrent" site which is where the illegal downloading occurs.
Surely if it relates to baring it relates to porn?
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Not every ISP is banning all Torrent listing sites.
TalkTalk, for instance, which is my ISP, blocks The Pirate Bay and EZTV.it , but not TorrentPond, which is a Torrent site listing site!
Plus Net, which I have used last week, while away from home, does not block TPB at all!
There are ways round blocking, of course. EZTV for instance, have set up their own proxy, while VPN services are readily available for a modest cost.
I think that those who would control the Internet are going to find it very hard so to do!
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"TalkTalk, for instance, which is my ISP, blocks The Pirate Bay and EZTV.it"
No it doesn't. Just accessed both those sites and I'm with TalkTalk.
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>>and I'm with...
My sincere sympathy.
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Why? -- Been with them five years, never had any problems or cause to contact them. Reasonable prices. What's not to like?
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>> Why? -- Been with them five years, never had any problems or cause to contact
>> them. Reasonable prices. What's not to like?
TalkTalk are still the cheapest for me. (Checked yesterday, as it happened)
I had a very quick email response to a contract length query, before I started comparing providers. I'm out of a fixed term contract now.
£38.40 per month gets me telephone line, all UK & EU geographical calls and medium fibre internet (up to 38 MB). For an extra fiver a month I could have up to 76MB fibre. Only non-geographic phone calls cost extra and it is rare for my bill to exceed the minimum.
(I should say the EU call "boost", normally a fiver, is free to atone for up-cocks when switching to fibre, so the package would normally be £43.40).
Our internet is more important to us than a SKY package, so as it's one or the other, t'internet wins.
Last edited by: Roger on Thu 23 Jan 14 at 13:53
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>> all UK & EU geographical calls
The irony is strong with this one, Obi-Wan.
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>> >> all UK & EU geographical calls
>>
>> The irony is strong with this one, Obi-Wan.
Grabbing at irony straws here Alanović!
Only useful to us as our daughter and (Army) family was in BAOR for 2.5 years!
Now back in UK, so now not needed. Would be good later if Greater Europe (Afganistan) was available. :-)
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Just another example of the benefits you happily enjoy yourself, but seek to withdraw the privilege from the rest of us. So, yes. A bit ironic that you seem pleased with your deal.
What's a BAOR?
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I assume he meant the British Forces of the Rhine. But that ceased to exist in 1994. Its now called BFG - British Forces Germany.
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>> Just another example of the benefits you happily enjoy yourself, but seek to withdraw the
>> privilege from the rest of us. So, yes. A bit ironic that you seem pleased
>> with your deal.
>>
>> What's a BAOR?
>>
British Army Of the Rhine.
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>> Just another example of the benefits you happily enjoy yourself, but seek to withdraw the
>> privilege from the rest of us. So, yes. A bit ironic that you seem pleased
>> with your deal.
>>
>> What's a BAOR?
Sorry - old fashioned there - BFG is the current designation.
You really are scraping the barrel, Alanović !
Would you have commented thus had the 'phone deal included anywhere else in the word?
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Doubt it. Your party isn't trying to scupper a beneficial relationship with the rest of the world, yet.
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I just clicked on TPB (with TalkTalk) and got this :-
Access to this website has been
Blocked
Blocking access to ThePiratebay Website has been made pursuant to a Court Order dated 27th April 2012 obtained by the members of the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Limited.
www.bpi.co.uk
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You are accessing their old site - they keep moving to avoid the Court Order
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>> >>The ISPS are baring nearly every "torrent" site which is where the illegal downloading occurs.
>>
>>
>> Surely if it relates to baring it relates to porn?
Barring torrent sites has nothing to do with porn, as explained it happened before the porn filter and works on a different principle to fix a different social issue.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 23 Jan 14 at 10:53
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>> >> Surely if it relates to baring it relates to porn?
>> Barring torrent sites has nothing to do with porn, as explained it happened before the
>> porn filter and works on a different principle to fix a different social issue.
I think Mapmaker was wearing his grammar/spelling pedant's hat :-P
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Ok, let me know when he creates another hilarious pun so I can prepare my funny bone to look out for it, lest it pass me by in the noise
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I think Zero's funny bone is ossified!
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You're letting the pedants down Roger, aren't bones ossified before they start? Fossilized maybe!
Last edited by: Manatee on Thu 23 Jan 14 at 11:40
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>> What's not to like?
Stick with them, CGN. My problem only started when I moved elsewhere.
:-)
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I never got my TalkTalk DSL-2780 router to work properly with my laptop. I'm still using an obsolete BT Voyager 2110. To be fair they did try to help me get it working, even sending me a new router (unfortunately the same as the one I had) and it was I who gave up trying first.
The other day I did their online performance check (using the 2110) and it said I wasn't getting best performance and they will send me a Huwaei HG533, their "best router".
I'll be pretty unlucky if this doesn't fix it, but looking at the reported list of issues with the Huwaei I'm not so sure!
I'll stick with TT for now - my biggest problem here is the carp line, slow and unreliable - TT have been a lot more help than Virgin Media, whose final response came quite quickly and was "if it doesn't work properly, your line is unsuitable for broadband so we can't provide a service".
What I will say is that TT were useless on the phone, but very good via the support forum.
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I found this "out there" No idea if it's good, bad, or works.
piratebrowser.com/
Last edited by: Roger on Mon 27 Jan 14 at 19:49
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Internet censorship. - Bromptonaut
