Latest Thai Government Meddling

[Bravo]

Heard on another forum that the Thai government is going to turn the screw and make use of proxy servers illegal.

Anyone got more news on this?

[Snick]

I've only seen the English language articles, not the Actual regulation itself (not that I could read the Thai anyhow)
But from the articles, the Law seems vague enough to cover anything they don't like. But there is specific mention of it being illegal to use a proxy server to circumvent government censorship.

Whether this is a felony, or misdemeanor and what the penalties would be I have no idea and haven't seen any mention.

How they can possibly enforce this I don't know !

[allstar88]

whats a proxy server?

[kahuna]

Once again Google comes to the rescue...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server

[Guest]

well i had read this some day's ago also.here is an article dealing with this loss of freedom of the thai people.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------

Thailand gets new cyber crime law


The chief immediate effect of the new bill will be to outlaw any attempt to get around government censors to access any of the tens of thousands of sites censored for moral or political purposes, or "to damage the country".

The government pushed the new law by saying it hopes the bill will provide an effective legal tool to fight cyber crime, including theft of data and chatroom contacts that lead to rape.

The National Legislative Assembly approved the Cyber Crime Bill, which gives officials power to crack down effectively on hacking and internet-related crimes through harsher punishments.

The bill sailed through its third reading on Wednesday by a vote of 119 to 1. It requires royal endorsement before it can be formally enacted into law.

The bill regards as a crime the intention to withhold internet protocol (IP) addresses and violators are subject to severe punishment, according to the NLA special committee assigned to scrutinise the law.

The IP is a unique address used to identify computer users while communicating with others on the network. However, the committee said, "ill-intentioned users" often hide or falsify their computer addresses so that they can easily carry out illegal acts and get away with them.

The committee believed tighter controls on IP addresses would help tackle the root cause of cyber problems.

Penalties apply to all illegal acts using the internet, including those carried out abroad and deemed to "damage the country both directly and indirectly".

[kaos]

OMG, which kind of crimes they are talking about? rape because of internet???
well these new politicians seem to me a bunch of idiots

[stogie bear]

I'm not too worried. I live in a country where prostitution is illegal!

[Road Runner]

(kaos @ May 14 2007,14:37) well these new politicians seem to me a bunch of idiots

In any country:- Government + computers =

RR.

[BAM]

I would stick to using your VPN... at least this way anyone in Thailand won't have a clue what you're doing. The Thai ISP's will have no way of knowing what sites your logging into when you're on a VPN connection since it's all encrypted.

Now if you're using a Proxy server the Thai ISP's can easily tell if they wanted to... and turn this info over to the Police when that day comes..

[Guest]

While proxy servers can provide anonymity, their most important functions are actually directing traffic and caching content. In short, they make http (the web) efficient.

Disallowing proxy servers because of anonymity is like disallowing stockings because of robbers.

[thaimeup]

This is Thailand, it is perfectly reasonable to outlaw stockings.

I think you are all over reacting, in a few months this will all die down when Thailand turns off the Internet.

[Snick]

More Analysis

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Asian_Economy/IE16Dk01.html

[Torurot]

"According to the Freedom Against Censorship Thailand group, "2007 may well be the 21st century's '1984' in Thailand", as the MICT has been granted a budget of more than US$100 million for Internet censorship and control. "

That's a shit load of money for some "minor" censorship!

[BAM]

(Torurot @ May 16 2007,20:15) That's a shit load of money for some "minor" censorship!

They'll just flash a few Linksys routers with Free DD-WRT  

Most of that money will just end up in the pockets of the Police  

[Road Runner]

(Torurot @ May 16 2007,13:15) That's a shit load of money for some "minor" censorship!

Bearing in mind how much was paid for a few security scanners for the airport I guess it's not that much!

I'm sure the Swiss bankers are rubbing their hands with glee at the moment

RR.