Someone in my household likes to watch the “Nothing to Declare”-type shows about how customs officials deal with contraband and possibly unwanted “visitors”. One of these shows is based in Australia, and some of the episodes have included stories about young men found to be in possession of certain kinds of never-fully-described (of course) porn on CDs which are confiscated and destroyed.

We have commented among ourselves that  such efforts seemed pretty futile since on either side of the border, or even at the airport, such materials could be downloaded from the internet rather easily by anyone who really wanted to make the effort.

Well, according to the news story I read, they’re closing that gap. Australia is planning to make a filter mandatory. The problem is the same that all filters have. There’s no way to make a filter that efficiently blocks the sites you want to block without slowing down the  whole system and blocking a good number of sites for no good reason. Those fighting against the installation of the filter may be exaggerating, or may not, but they are predicting that the filter may slow the web by 84% and block 1 of 12 legitimate sites. They have a petition against it, which I signed. If you want to sign it go here:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet/442

Of course, if the web really does slow down 84% in Australia when they introduce it,  I’m sure Australian businesses will see that changes are made. But in any case, this is one case in which I believe in the slippery slope folks are always getting upset about. If Australia does it, and the populace doesn’t get so upset that they see if change, can other nations be far behind? And should it be discouraged? YES!

One more thing. I want to add my voice to the crowd in the Bagdad streets:

FREE AL ZAIDI!