[IP] Re: The Great Firewall of Norway

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Simen E. Sandberg" <senilix@gallerbyen.net>
Date: February 13, 2007 4:21:03 PM EST
To: Rich Kulawiec <rsk@gsp.org>
Cc: David Farber <dave@farber.net>, Gunnar Helliesen  
<gunnar@helliesen.com>, svein@willassen.no
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: The Great Firewall of Norway

Rich Kulawiec <rsk@gsp.org>, Tue, Feb 13, 2007 at 02:06:47PM -0500:
> This is currently impossible.  (That is, "stop[ping] most of the  
> illegal
> traffic with a filter".)

You are absolutely correct. I have forwarded both your and John Morris'
emails to Willassen. He found useful information in the first email and
will forward it to the rest the group that made this proposal.

Willassen himself has a paragraph in the proposal where he guesses that
commercial operators will create a market for easy-to-use proxy services
to avoid the filter. Even users without technical knowledge will be able
to bypass the filter if they get help from such operators.

There are other issues, as well. We may block content (like poker sites)
that are legal in countries in the Europeian Union. While Norway is not
a member of the union, we participate in the inner market and are not
allowed to hinder business with other countries in most cases.

My email to IP was sent because Helliesen's representation of
Dagbladet's representation of the report did not really represent the
original content. The main points were that the majority of the study
group (with Willassen in particular) wanted no filtering by law, and
that the minority did not propose a solution with arbitrary filtering.
(Although their solution is worthless, by both technical and political
means.)

I do hope and believe our politicans will understand that such filtering
is a bad idea when the parliament will handle all the proposed changes
from the study group later this year.

--
Simen E. Sandberg, student
http://www.simensandberg.no/

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