This is as close we have come to confirming early information that no Australian will be able to completely opt-out of the Government’s clean feed.

Mark Newton, who works for one of Australia’s largest ISPs Internode, writes on Whirlpool that there will be two black lists: One list that contains content that is unsuitable for children and another that contains content unsuitable or illegal for adults to view (of which you can’t opt-out from).

That means even if you opt-out, your connection will still be filtered.



Newton says:

‘The Government’s plan is for there to be two blacklists, one for “unsuitable for children,” and another one for “unsuitable for adults.” The much-touted “opt-out” would merely involve switching from blacklist number 1 to blacklist number 2. Under their current proposal, there’s no scope at all to switch to no blacklist at all. Regardless of your personal preference, your traffic will pass through the censorship box.’

And in another post he says:

‘If you hadn’t opted out you’d get both filters, if you had you’d only get the second filter. There’s no indication from anyone at the Dept about how any of this is supposed to work, which, I think, answers your second question. In particular, the test last week showed that even the absolute best filtering package they looked at couldn’t reliably distinguish between illegal and legal material.’

With no real opt-out provision, all Australian Internet users will suffer from the performance loss and overblocking that was found in the Government’s Tasmanian filtering trial.

Remember to visit NoCleanFeed.com to find out how you can take action. If you haven’t written a letter, it is now more important than ever that you do.

Thanks to Ben on STOP for the tip off.

Update 2/10/2008 10:30AM: Contacted DBCDE for comment. Standard form reply expected.

Update 2/10/2008 12:54PM: I’ve had some emails from people asking me who they should contact. Start with Senator Conroy, Senator Minchin and your local member. NoCleanFeed has an example letter here, but feel free to add your own objections to it. An original letter holds more weight. Fax, post or email — just remember to include your full name and postal address so it is taken seriously.

Don’t forget to contact the media as well.