Ce n’est pas une image

Conroy‘s plan for internet censorship is technically silly, as blacklists are bypassable and content filtering is expensive, and bypassable.

This is not an image or attached file….. it’s just plain ASCII

Here’s how to send an image electronically that will get through almost ANY filtering package.  With a bit of tweaking, providing the viewer has java script, you can even get movies through any filter.

This is just to show how silly federal ALP proposals are for internet censorship… technically there is always a way.   (Yes I know it ain’t Renoir, but it IS proof of concept, especially as WP filters out a whole lot of HTML constructs.  I can’t be bothered doing any more work on it than a couple of minutes.)

Basic approach: Use HTML tables, with VERY tiny cell sizes and fonts, set the colors of fonts/backgrounds to the color you want.  Voila.  No attachments, plainish text.  Hell, if you set the font size small enough, you could even have the filter thinking you were transmitting a chapter of the bible, while the picture looked something even less savory.

The advanced approach is to use javascript to color in the cells by addressing them as DOM elements.  If you had nothing better to do, you could just about do an animation.

And what is the internet content filtering going to see?  An attachment or pointer to an image or video?  Nope.

If free-hosted WP allowed javascript, I’d almost be bothered writing an animation of someone raising the finger to Conroy.

And if you think doing this was tiresome, I could just run an image or animation through the ascii-art filters of gimp/mplayer et al to do the grunt work.

---

See Also/Notes:

Actually, there are many more serious criticisms I could make of the plan, including the nasty probability that I could get a commercial competitor into the "blacklist", but I’ll give you the following for starters:

• No clean feed campaign, including "take action (this is pretty much an EFA-initiated site)
• "Alarm at creeping ‘clean’ feed" (2008-10-16) at Electronic Frontiers Australia
  

  However, recent comments by experts have revealed the existence of a second, secret black list, that would apply even to homes that managed to opt out of the child-safe filtering scheme.

• Via Australia Policy Online’s linkboard is another analysis by EFA "Labor’s mandatory ISP Internet blocking plan" (2008-10-26)
• Parliamentary Inquiry into the Provisions of the. Communications Legislation Amendment (Content Services) Bill 2007 which covered pretty much the same ground. Hmmm: this submission looks familiar.  Read through the various submissions, especially the one from the EFA.
• The ALP minority report on the committee examining the Content Services Bill 2007 makes interesting reading: too little consultation, especially with experts, ill-thought through…. it’s a pity they don’t have similar reservations with the current ill-though-through plans that are technically wrong-headed.
• "Net censorship roundup: Fielding and Xenophon want filters to include legal material" at Hoyden About Town (2008-10-27)
• The start of my quick email to the minister:
  

  In 2007 you cited my name in the minority report into the Content Services Bill 2007, criticising the then government for hasty plans and insufficient consultation with industry. If you were doing your duty as a senator, you will have read all the submissions carefully, most of which discussed the very issues in your new plans to censor the internet in Australia.