Saint in Paradise Posted 23 February, 2015 Share Posted 23 February, 2015 Just for your information in the U.K. as at the moment N.Z. don't have Internet censorship. Anyway, I was sent the following e-mail from a reliable source make of it what you will. Quote:- "The email told us about how Chris -- who uses Sky as his Internet service provider -- tried to visit BeatTheSpeedTrap.co.uk. Here's the message: I just went through a mobile camera and tried to log on to your site when I got home. It appears it is blocked as you are classed as “Drugs or Criminal Skills”. I attach a screen snip for your information. For Sky users they have to go into Shield and specifically allow “beatthespeedtrap.co.uk” to gain access. Apart from being completely ridiculous... it made me think. Do we really live in a country where the Internet is censored to this degree? And then I thought about the zero tolerance hidden speed cameras we've been talking about recently. And I thought... Are we ( in the U.K. ) headed towards a totalitarianism regime? I never talk about politics in the BTST Newsletter because 1) I haven't really got the time to be all that interested or well versed in it and; 2) it's a sure fire way to fall out with people you otherwise get on very well with! But it does seem that the Government who introduced the "Freedom Bill" and vowed to "End the war on motorists" may be turning their back on us..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint si Posted 23 February, 2015 Share Posted 23 February, 2015 We have Sky and that site works fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unbelievable Jeff Posted 23 February, 2015 Share Posted 23 February, 2015 We have Sky and that site works fine. Me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pap Posted 23 February, 2015 Share Posted 23 February, 2015 Different ISPs are applying different policies, it would seem. Virgin have blocked stuff I've looked at before, although you can get to the same sites through VPN. There are so many problems associated with Internet censorship. First, there's the obvious question of who determines what is appropriate. If the range of censored content grows to be too great, you'll end up pushing people onto "dark" networks, alongside paedos, drug dealers and terrorists. There's also the huge freedom of speech issue. Existing law should be fine. It the net is used to do something illegal, like buy drugs, or download horrid stuff, use the existing laws to prosecute. Fear of what someone might do with the information shouldn't be used to hide information. One thing that makes me laugh is that the Anarchist's Cookbook, now commonly seen as an indicator of someone with terrorist designs, was passed around freely on floppy disc at school in the early 1990s. We didn't start a Cantell-based jihad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted 23 February, 2015 Share Posted 23 February, 2015 On an unrelated note, if any Nigerian phishing criminals are looking for someone who believes every single email they get, I know someone who fits the bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilippineSaint Posted 24 February, 2015 Share Posted 24 February, 2015 this is why having a son in IT to get around all the blocks and filters is so helpful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pap Posted 24 February, 2015 Share Posted 24 February, 2015 On an unrelated note, if any Nigerian phishing criminals are looking for someone who believes every single email they get, I know someone who fits the bill. The obvious choice would be anyone stupid enough to reach out to Nigerian phishing criminals on a Southampton based forum. Still, the Premier League does have a very high profile these days. Who knows? this is why having a son in IT to get around all the blocks and filters is so helpful Yeah, the background in IT helps, but some of the stuff that Virgin has blocked has just been seemingly innocuous. VPN will get you around most things. I pay about £25 per year for mine, and it allows me to pretend that I'm in most countries of note. It even has a Southampton endpoint, which is very good if you're abroad and want to watch (choppy) iPlayer. I've seen censorship implemented pretty fiercely in a professional environment. The corporate mothership is lethal for it; can't use Facebook, Gmail which is sort of understandable. However, they also block things like blogs, which is a total pain in the arse as that is often where you will find technical solutions. Completely valid use, but barred on the basis that it looks too much like Social Networking. I've raised it a couple of times, but they've never really fixed it. They have no easy way to determine whether a page on one of the big blog hosts is a valid professional resource or a collection of cake recipes. The best they can do is add any page I need to see to an exclusions list, but that's not much help when you're trying to get information in time-critical situations. Note the "no easy way"; it's not impossible, but it's just not cost-effective for them to do it. I suspect that any censorship scheme will have similar problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarniaSaint Posted 24 February, 2015 Share Posted 24 February, 2015 Why do you guys put up with this crap???..........this is a real question..........taking away your freedom..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_clark Posted 24 February, 2015 Share Posted 24 February, 2015 Why do you guys put up with this crap???..........this is a real question..........taking away your freedom..... Well in this case it's different policies of different internet providers. Anyone who doesn't like it has the FREEDOM to change to a different provider. Small point about the hidden speed cameras...if you're knowingly breaking the law you can't complain when you get caught, whatever the circumstances. Not judging, not condemning, but if you're willing to take the risk then you have to just hold your hands up if you get caught. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint si Posted 24 February, 2015 Share Posted 24 February, 2015 Why do you guys put up with this crap???..........this is a real question..........taking away your freedom..... Ah yes because (1) content control by ISPs is exactly the same as state censorship and (2) exclusively something that occurs in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pancake Posted 24 February, 2015 Share Posted 24 February, 2015 The obvious choice would be anyone stupid enough to reach out to Nigerian phishing criminals on a Southampton based forum. Still, the Premier League does have a very high profile these days. Who knows? Yeah, the background in IT helps, but some of the stuff that Virgin has blocked has just been seemingly innocuous. VPN will get you around most things. I pay about £25 per year for mine, and it allows me to pretend that I'm in most countries of note. It even has a Southampton endpoint, which is very good if you're abroad and want to watch (choppy) iPlayer. I've seen censorship implemented pretty fiercely in a professional environment. The corporate mothership is lethal for it; can't use Facebook, Gmail which is sort of understandable. However, they also block things like blogs, which is a total pain in the arse as that is often where you will find technical solutions. Completely valid use, but barred on the basis that it looks too much like Social Networking. I've raised it a couple of times, but they've never really fixed it. They have no easy way to determine whether a page on one of the big blog hosts is a valid professional resource or a collection of cake recipes. The best they can do is add any page I need to see to an exclusions list, but that's not much help when you're trying to get information in time-critical situations. Note the "no easy way"; it's not impossible, but it's just not cost-effective for them to do it. I suspect that any censorship scheme will have similar problems. Surely a laptop not connected to the corporate lan (so going out on the web via broadband or wireless) is what you need. Most companies provide this for technical team to allow them to get round restrictions during high severity incidents or time critical work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypochondriac Posted 24 February, 2015 Share Posted 24 February, 2015 Surely a laptop not connected to the corporate lan (so going out on the web via broadband or wireless) is what you need. Most companies provide this for technical team to allow them to get round restrictions during high severity incidents or time critical work. Or just look on a mobile or use it as a hotspot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pancake Posted 24 February, 2015 Share Posted 24 February, 2015 Or just look on a mobile or use it as a hotspot That's not really a very enterprise solution (and un workable when in a server room/data centre) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bad Bob Posted 24 February, 2015 Share Posted 24 February, 2015 Why do you guys put up with this crap???..........this is a real question..........taking away your freedom..... Because it's not Sky that was blocking the site, rather he had a product called Shield running which appears to be acting as a web filter, blocking sites that are on a list provided by someone. My ISP, BT, stops access to torrent and file sharing sites that it knows of but I can get around that if I need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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