On October 29th, 1969, the world's
first internet messagewas sent between two computers in
California. It consisted of the letter 'L', followed by 'O'. Then
the system crashed. Just over 40 years later, there are more than
two billion people connected to the internet. The scale, the breadth
of the activity is mind-blowing.
We're all plugged in to the big, fat
information pipe now. We can contact a massive library and information
is on tap.The virtual revolution is transforming
the way we shop, manage our health, and entertain ourselves and
even how we make friends.Websites like Facebook and Twitter and
YouTube really allow people to seek attention for
themselves.Thequestionof the impact of technology on young
brains is as broad a question as that, let's say, of climate change.
It's unprecedented, it's highly controversial, and some people think
we're doomed.Whatever you think of digital
technology, one thing is certain there's no going back. At first, it
seems like good news. There's evidence our visual IQ is going up.
Our onscreen environments are becoming so sophisticated; they're
improving our spatial visualisation and orientation skills. To keep
track of what's happening; viewers are becoming experts at dividing
their attention.Nobody seems to dwell for any period of
time, anywhere, but what people seem to be doing is just skipping
the surface, skittering. They spend seconds, minutes, on something
and then they're off to something else.Older and younger users displayed
startling differences in the way they gather information. Older Gen
X users took an average of 3.5 minutes to find an answer on the
internet, while digital natives took about 30 seconds. One would
assume that's because the younger generation are better at using the
technology.With all this unprecedented access to
information, from television, the internet and telecommunications,
many of us no longer give ourselves the gift of switching off. It's
in these moments where we can reflect and process what we've learnt
into a deeper, more mindful knowledge. Without those moments, we may
simply become shallower
.
Countries such as Syria, Iran, Russia,
China, Cuba, Burma, and Thailand try to control free speech, the
media, and apply censorship. AlsoIran, North
Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan andVietnam. However we who
love the Internet, enjoy the fact that so many people are able to
contribute. The Internet is a never ending battle of good guys who
love freedom against bad guys like the old fashioned Hollywood media
moguls. We are driven by a vision of an open Internet but it has
already been distorted with attempts to control and censor it.I was warned that old fashioned control
freaks might try to separate us from our beloved forums. We, the
idealists insist that information is able to flow freely online. If
all content were valued instead of only some, perhaps information
and a free market economy would elevate success, rights,
communication and justice for all.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, states
that 'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion
and expression and this r.ight includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers'
The notion
of freedom of expression is intimately linked to political debate
and the concept of democracy
When
January 18th, 2012 rolled around, the stage was set
When SOPA and
PIPA Were first introduced in Congress, things
looked grim for the internet. Widespread censorship seemed imminent,
and Internet supporters everywhere were worried about the massive
blow that was about to be dealt to freedom. But then something
amazing happened. Internet users around the globe started to fight
back. Pro-freedom groups both large and small created ways to show
their support for an open and uncensored web. Hundreds of thousands
of people participated, and major websites like Google, Reddit, and
Tumblr joined the cause
Description
It is a global system of interconnected
computer networks that use the
standard Internet protocol suite to serve
billions of users worldwide. It is a network
of networks that consists of millions of private, public,
academic, business, and government networks, of local to global
scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and
optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive
range of information resources and services, such as the
inter linked hypertext documents of the World
Wide Web and the infrastructure to support email
Most traditional communications media
including telephone, music, film, and
television are reshaped or redefined by the Internet, giving birth
to new services Newspaper, book and other print publishing are
adapting to Web
site technology, or are reshaped into blogging and web
feeds. The Internet has enabled or accelerated new forms
of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums,
and social
networking. Online shopping has boomed both for
major retail outlets and small artisans and traders
.
Origins
The origins of the Internet reach back to
research of the 1960s, commissioned by the United States government
in collaboration with private commercial interests to build robust,
fault tolerant, and distributed computer networks. The funding of a
new U.S.backboneby theNational Science Foundationin the 1980s, as well as private funding for
other commercial backbones, led to worldwide participation in the
development of new networking technologies, and the merger of many
networks. Thecommercializationof what was by the 1990s an international
network resulted in its popularization and incorporation into
virtually every aspect of modern human life. As of 2011, more than
2.1 billion people, nearly a third of Earth's populationuse the services of the
Internet
The Internet has no centralized control in
either technological implementation or policies for access and usage
and each constituent network sets its own standards. Only the
overreaching definitions of the two principal name
spacesin the Internet, theInternet Protocol addressspace and the Domain
Name System, are directed by a maintainer organization,
theInternet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers
In October
2009, Finland's Ministry of Transport and
Communications announced that every person in Finland
would have the legal right to Internet access.Since
2010, the Finland Government has legally obligated telecommunications
companies to offer broadband Internet access to every permanent residence
and office. The connection must be reasonably priced and have a
downstream rate of at least 1 Mbit/s
In 2010
theBBChaving commissioned an opinion poll, reported
that almost four in five people around the world believe that access
to the internet is a fundamental right. The polling company
GlobeScan for the BBC World
Servicecollated the answers of 27,973 adult citizens
across 26 countries to find that 80% of adults strongly agreed that
access to the internet should be a fundamental right of all
people
.
Freedom of
Information
Protect
internet freedomTwo
hundred world governments will soon meet to update a key treaty
called the International Telecommunications Union. Some governments
are proposing to extend their authority to Internet governance in ways that could
threaten Internet openness and innovation,
increase access costs, and erode human rights
online.Please call on civil
society organisations and citizens of all nations to sign the
Statement to Protect Global Internet
Freedom
Freedom
of information refers to the protection of the right tofreedom of expressionwith
regards to theInternetandinformation technologyFreedom
of information may also concern censorship in an information
technology context, that is the ability to accessWeb
contentwithout
censorship or restrictions
Freedom of
information is an extension offreedom of speech, a fundamental human rightrecognised in international law, which is today understood more generally as
freedom of expression in any medium, be it orally, in writing,
print, through the Internetor through art forms. This means that the
protection of freedom of speech as a right includes not only the
content, but also the means of expression. Freedom of information
may also refer to the right
to privacyin the context of the Internet and information
technology. As with the right to freedom of expression, the right to
privacy is a recognized human right and freedom of information acts
as an extension to this right.Lastly, freedom of information can include opposition to
patents, copyrights or intellectual propertyin general. The internationalandUS
Pirate Partyhave
established political platforms based largely on freedom of
information issues
Downloader’s being monitoredIf you have downloaded movies or music
from the internet using BitTorrent, it is likely your
computer details
have been collected. BitTorrent is a quick way of downloading files
from a number of sources at one time. Millions of people around the world use
it to get the latest popular films or songs for free, but
downloading copyrighted content is illegal, and research shows monitoring
groups are watching
.
Censorship and
Control
Protect
internet freedomTwo
hundred world governments will soon meet to update a key treaty
called the International Telecommunications Union. Some governments
are proposing to extend their authority to Internet governance in ways that could
threaten Internet openness and innovation,
increase access costs, and erode human rights
online.Please call on civil
society organisations and citizens of all nations to sign the
Statement to Protect Global Internet
Freedom
.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, states that 'Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression and this right includes freedom to hold
opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers'The notion of freedom of expression is
intimately linked to political debate and the concept of
democracy. The idea of freedom of information has emerged
in response to state sponsored censorship, monitoring and surveillance on
the internet
Reporters without Borders (Reporters sans frontiers) a Paris based
international nongovernmental
organization that advocates freedom of the press , publishes a
list of 'Enemies of the Internet'. The organization classifies
countries as they mark themselves out not just for their capacity to
censor news and information online but also for their systematic
repression of Internet users. They list Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia,
Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam but not Australia
.
Roxon tries to allay fearsAttorney
General Nicola Roxon has moved to ease community concerns over a
controversial plan to store data about people's phone and internet
use for up to two years. Ms Roxon insists there would be strict
privacy measures in place to make sure the information is only used
by crime fighting agencies when it is needed. Under the plan, phone
and internet companies will be required to keep logs of internet
sites and phone calls made by their customers for several years
instead of regularly deleting the data.
Project Censorship examine the coverage of news
and information important to the maintenance of a healthy and
functioning democracy. They define Modern Censorship as the subtle
yet constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality in our mass
media outlets. On a daily basis, censorship refers to the
intentional non-inclusion of a news story – or piece of a news story
– based on anything other than a desire to tell the truth. Such
manipulation can take the form of political pressure (from
government officials and powerful individuals), economic pressure
(from advertisers and funders), and legal pressure (the threat of
lawsuits from deep-pocket individuals, corporations, and
institutions). In their view, the only
valid justification for declining a news story is that in a medium
limited by time and space, another news story was simply more
important to the people of the community, whether local, national or
international
.
Authors appeal overturned Former Qantas cabin
cleaner and editor of
the 'Call to Islam' magazine. Belal Khazaal 42 of
Lakemba Australia faced
trial in 2008. He
has been
returned to prison after the High Court upheld his original
conviction for producing a do-it-yourself terrorism manual, andbeen
sentenced to 12 years' jail
with a non-parole period of nine
years. Last year, the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed Khazaal's conviction on
the grounds that he had shown a reasonable possibility the manual
was not intended to facilitate terrorism.
Why
have they
singled out Khazaal ? and is such a
long sentence justified in the circumstances. Perhaps his
legal team’s defense should have been accepted again. Is this justice, as
clearly jailing Khazaal will not change anything on the net and such
material will continue to be available throughout the world.This
seems to be a matter of Human Rights
as the severity of his sentence is
outragous normally exspected in other regimes and not
Australia
.
News
Protect
internet freedomTwo
hundred world governments will soon meet to update a key treaty
called the International Telecommunications Union. Some governments
are proposing to extend their authority to Internet governance in ways that could
threaten Internet openness and innovation,
increase access costs, and erode human rights
online.Please call on civil
society organisations and citizens of all nations to sign the
Statement to Protect Global Internet
Freedom
.
.
Government
abandons plan Australian has abandoned its controversial
plan for a mandatory internet filter.
Min.
Stephen Conroy says internet services providers have instead been
issued with orders to block websites listed on Interpol's database.
He said that he has reached agreement with all of the telco service
providers that they will block the worst of the worst child abuse
pornography material. Police have issued notices to a whole
range of companies. Censorship has no place in society and while he abhors
child abuse, there are few means to stop a determined
person accessing any site regardless of blocks and filters which
ruins any argument for a filter. It appeared to be aimed at more
than just horrid sites, but no one ought to abdicate the decision of
what they can read to a third party. It is a slippery slope from
there to being a controlled informed person. And we think
anonymity should be discouraged as Twitter is
doing
.
.
Free Speech The Finkelstein Report is in part is a
reaction to the UK's Leveson Inquiry. It was an inquiry into media
regulation and the findings of the former judge will have an impact
on what gets published and therefore what we read. Will it mark the
end of a 'free press' in Australia, and
why is the Andrew Bolt case so important? Why are 17 year old Twitter users being
arrested in the middle of night? Why are footballers being taken to
court over
words said on the pitch? What effect is the Leveson Inquiry having
on the press? What is happening to free speech in the
UK?Please click play to
listen
Coalition would deliver fast
enoughAustralia's opposition spokesman for
communications says their broadband plan would provide
adequate speeds and
would be much faster to
build
.
Your brain on the internetWhen we hear Baroness Susan Greenfield
talk about
the dangers of the internet and of social media, we should recall the facts, and alter our
responses accordingly. Because she is not a digital native, she
likely finds these technologies more threatening than do younger
people. But because the internet is transforming the world in ways
that are unprecedented, a feeling of unease might arise in any of
us. In order to
assess the genuine costs and benefits of digital culture, we need
empirical evidence. This kind of evidence is extremely difficult to
collect
.
.
Anonymous They use their unique
skill sets to expose companies that practice poor corporate
governance that are involved in large scale fraudulent activities.
All their information presented in reports are acquired through
legal channels, checked and vetted thoroughly before release. They
strongly oppose Internet censorship and
surveillance, and have hacked various government websites targeting
major security corporations
Facebook -
Censorship How they decide what content is to be
published and what is to be banned has intrigued many
users
Internet Access Is a Human RightReported by the UN and theydeclared that the Internet had become an
indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights. Courts and
parliaments in countries like France and Estonia have also
pronounced Internet access a human right
America is trying to
control and police the InternetThere are many current examples and
ifaccused, you can argue against
extradition on the grounds of possible torture or inhumane prison
conditions. If extradited to America, they may put you in a super max prison and hold
you in solitary confinement. The wider political issue is the
attempts of the US government to reduce the freedom of the Internet
and bring in new laws to control it.Freedom of
expression is a recognized human
right and freedom of information can include
opposition to copyrights or intellectual property in general
Facebook Reject many of my postings
without explanation saying only that they are ‘spammy or unsafe'. I
don’t understand the problem so I complain on their form as they
suggest, to find and rectify the problem. They say they will email
me but never do
CCTV ‘Big Brother’ ProjectChances are that you're being watched
in the UK. It has more CCTVcameras per person for surveillance than almost any other
nation on earth. And now the government is planning to cast its
intrusive eyeover online activity, phone calls and
text messages
Fight the Power -The
SystemNation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily
implement a new anti piracy plan that will engage network operators
in the largest digital spying scheme in history. This site resolves
to publish anything on their blog that they can get away with,
including any emails
It is noted that countries such as Syria, Iran,
Russia, China, Cuba, Burma, and Thailand also try to control free
speech, the media, apply censorship and surveillance But
Australia is a democratic and free country and its citizens do not
accept controls easily
My realization
She got to thinking about the issue
of censorship
Studios suffer blow on movie piracy
After over three years in the courts, and millions spent in legal
fees, the big film studios have failed to pin responsibility for
illegal downloading on the companies who sell high speed internet to
the movie pirates
Downloader’s being monitoredIf you have downloaded movies or music from the
internet using BitTorrent, it is likely your computer details have been
collected. BitTorrent is a quick way of downloading files from a
number of sources at one time. Millions of people around the world use it to
get the latest popular films or songs for free, but downloading
copyrighted content is illegal, and research shows monitoring groups are
watching
Court wont reduce verdictSupreme Court refuse to reduce the
$675,000 verdict against a Boston university student Joel Tenenbaum,
who illegally downloaded 30 songs and shared them on the Internet. He
was sued by the Recording Industry Assn of America. See copyrights
Australians to outstrip others Cisco
predict that the Internet will grow by four times by 2016, and the
speed will increase fivefold
The internet is a revolution,
desirable and very popular and help us make
friends, communicate and share thoughts and ideas.
We believe that it’s fine, important and desirable for there
to be guidelines, but they should be more easily available and
broadbased and realistic. It is clearly impossible for
Internet Service Providers or Government to enforce them and
they should just suggest and encourage user to be responsible.
If not they may be liable to legal prosecution
Everything is available on the Internet
now, and kids in particular can find what ever they want.
We firmly believe that there is only one
solution which is desirable and healthy. There should
be NO
CENSORSHIP on
the Internet and everyone should be able to post and express
and share what they wish. The Internet and websites should be
easily accessible, uncensored and freely available to everyone
to use
Government
abandons plan
Your brain on the internet
