Filtering trials are kept from greedy ISPs

The main reason for a number of Internet Service Providers being omitted from the initial rounds of ISP filtering was because they tried to greedily get upgrades to their own equipment paid for by the department, according to Stephen Conroy, the Communications Minister.

Whilst speaking at the Australian Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG) conference he said “Some of them, cheaply, took the opportunity to try and get the Commonwealth to fund an upgrade in their own equipment. Some of them came to us and said look, we can do this no problem, zero dollar costs. So obviously we were able to start with them.”

Conroy said that in a veiled attempt to try and have the government pay for their boxes to be upgraded, some parties bought million dollar cost to the table. He said “There were a few try-ons in the process, but we had to work our way through it.”

Conroy advised that the first six ISPs were chosen for this exact reason. Following the subject being brought up by Wayne Neich, the Blue coat’s country manager Conroy assured “It was actually a function of the applications which came in. No great conspiracy theory. We’re still actively engaged in conversation with a number of applicants.”

Following concerns after a large amount had been invested into the ISP filtering process by his company, Neich said that no insight or understanding had been reached by his company regarding why the other six telco’s had been picked.

For all those why were saying that this filtering system would be the Australian equivalent of the Great Wall of China, Conroy lashed out by saying that “refuse classification (RC) material”, which would be any material that included sexual violence, child sexual abuse imagery, violence or drug use and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act, bestiality or detailed instruction in crime, were the only things he wanted to remove.