Sign the petition here: http://petitions.takingitglobal.org/oznetcensorship.

For a list of posters you can use to place in public and spread the word, please go here.

ACCESS OUR FORUMS!

Click here.

Our intention is to stop the implementation of Internet Censorship in Australia.

In case you don’t know what that means, or who it affects, it is the proposed plan of creating a compulsory internet filter which is intended on removing and banning the access to any website which is deemed “inappropriate”.

While the idea itself is intended to bring a safer environment for children on the internet, the filter brings about no concern for anybody else who uses the internet, and is a serious violation of our freedom of rights, speech and expression.

The idea is being implemented by Senator Stephen Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, with the co-operation of our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.

The planned internet filters will disable our rights to view and access hundreds of thousands of web pages due to content that filters deem “inappropriate”. The problem with this however is not only the accuracy of the filters which have been known to wrongfully block “safesites”, known to not block “potentially harmful material”, and have also shown that they cripple internet speeds.

Another website which has a belief similar to ours, http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/, posted a great example showing how the filtering system is a complete failure after a trial run by the government in Tasmania. Despite this failure, the filter plan is still being implemented nationally into the future.

(The full write-up can be found here – Also, another similar write-up can be found here.)

The government however has stated that this “Internet Filter” will be compulsory, meaning everyone with an internet connection will be affected. People who don’t even have children in the house will have to suffer by being denied access to their own corners of interest on the internet – if it is deemed “inappropriate” for children.

There however is an inappropriate opt-out option – requiring you to register your details on a government register to monitor your internet usage, to see exactly why you didn’t want to use the internet filter, which is a blatant disrespect and law breaking of our privacy rights.

Our plan is a 3 stage approach in order to do our part to prevent this filter from being brought into place.

Stage 1: Educate Ourselves.

Stage 2: Educate Others.

Stage 3: Peaceful Action.

By peaceful action, we are advocating the use of letters sent to your Minister of Parliament or Letters to the Editor in your local and national newspapers. Any peaceful, non-violent/non-harmful expression of interest is acceptable and encouraged. WE ARE NOT advocating the use of violence, threats and other harmful means of expression.

They will block any sites they find INAPPROPRIATE, including:

– Limewire and Torrent sites (CONFIRMED – any sites for MP3 and movie downloads will be BLOCKED)

– Youtube (Music videos and movie clips, can be used on YouTube in the US where Youtube is based, but break Australian copyright – BLOCKED)

– Myspace (Blogs that offend the Government, music and videos – BLOCKED)

– Facebook (Blogs and videos – BLOCKED)

– Wikipedia (Articles on suicide, euthanasia, and descriptive photos in articles, copyrighted photos and song samples – BLOCKED)

– Your favourite Forums (Anything with an unlicensed song or video, or discussion of topics not suitable for “children” – BLOCKED)

– Any site people can have their say about anything on – BLOCKED

– Anything the Government disagrees with – BLOCKED

– Anything “inappropriate for children” (We won’t even get told why a site would get blocked, it will just go – BLOCKED!)

So please, we ask you, do your part into stopping this for the good of our country, and for our rights to freedom.

POSTERS

To spread the word in public, we are creating new posters which you can print out and stick around publicly to raise awareness, and others which you can send over the internet. You can find these posters here.

PAMPHLETS

We have pamphlets created for you to print out and to hand out in the public. The pamphlets would be more effective than a stand-alone image, as they offer specific details on what is being blocked. Different pamphlets will be created over time to attract different audiences. You can find the pamphlets here.

CONTACTING

If you wish to contact one of your Local MP’s through a letter, or would like to contact Stephen Conroy himself, here are some helpful links as well.

A guide and some help for writing a letter to your MP + help on getting their contact details.

Contact details for Stephen Conroy’s office.

IRC CHAT

If you would like to engage in discussion with members of the community who are fighting against the planned filter, feel free to join us in discussion on our IRC Page at irc://irc.rizon.net:6667/ #ausrage or at irc://irc.rizon.net/#ausrage

LINKS

Other sites of interest regarding the implications of this filter include:

Please spread the word through MySpace.

Tell people to add http://myspace.com/leavethenetalone.