Censoring the next loss of freedom
So today reading the Buffalo News I found and interesting story about the internet. link That is the link to the original article. Here is my take on what is happening here. I think internet companies are giving our freedom away and Cuomo is taking our freedom away also. Some might say "But Pete child porn is evil and anyone who would rape a child is sick and should go to jail or be killed or raped why are you defending them". I'm not defending them at all. I think that most people would think that Child Porn is very wrong and that it hurts a lot of people. Not sure how I feel about people who like the pictures but don't hurt anyone and just look at them and I'm sure there is some debate on that. I'm sure people disagree on what the punishment should be for child porn. It is a big problem and real solutions need to be found. One of those solutions isn't making internet providers the cops.
What happens often is that people think that because something is bad or evil that they have a right to do things that are wrong to that person or do things that they normally wouldn't do. For example someone rapes a girl and then they think that, that guy should be raped every day in jail. But see what they don't understand is that rape is wrong so him being raped is just as wrong. So in theory everyone who rapes the rapest is just as bad as him, so then someone should rape them, sorry that is conflictory and makes no sense.
Since Child Porn is wrong people think that it is ok to sensor web sites that help pass it to other people. But what if that site has other stuff other then porn why hurt the entire site. But see what these companies don't get is that once you do it once when asked to you are now an internet cop. Once you do this once you will continue to do this with other things. What if Some powerful senator thinks Marriage is between a man and women and so he gets websites that fight for gay rights or marraige to be taken down. Some would say that would never happen. But see internet companies are now the cops so if they think it is wrong goodbye. Or maybe what about underage drinking. What if they go after sites that tell how to make drinks with out making sure people are 21. Hey underage drinking when you mix driving kills a lot of people I can see how now the internet cops could close down those sites. hey why not take that another step and go after pictures of people drinking on the net who might not be legal age. Why not just go after any site that does that and stop access. Once you let the government tell you what can and can't be on the internet you have let your rights be taken away and then can lead to not being able to keep the government honest. If you think this can't happen go look at China's Internet.
I'm sure I could come up with a bunch of different examples to show what I mean. The thing is that morality is different for different people. I'm sure there are some people who have sex with kids (not teens who fuck around and are underage) and think it is fine. Things that are illegal should be fought by the police and undercover people on line and there should be over sight so that they follow the law. If you break the law to capture someone you are just another criminal your self and are no better then they are. But see that is the job of the law officals not the people who allow you access to the internet.
Other then the fact that we are giving away our rights again to feel safe. There is another issue. If the internet companies are given the keys to the cuffs and made cops then what happens next and how far will they go and how many more rights will the violate. So lets say Time Warner knows making bombs is illegal and the mis one site and someone blows something up and people die. Well now that timewarner is the cops they could be sued, hey they should have pulled down that site. So because of that it could make the internet even more restricted.
Yes internet child porn is bad and should be fought but this is not the way to do it. When ever anyone sees their rights being given up or the possiblity of that happening maybe it should be fought. At the very least you should understand what is going on and think about it. Not sure if there is anyway to fight it as an indivual. I think if the internet companies are supbenied by a judge for a case then yes they should give up the information but none of the witch hunt stuff.
In any event it is an interesting article. I will end like this. People will not stand up for the rights of people they think are different then them selves but when the powers that be attack what you believe in or you then it will be so different now that it is you. Don't give up your rights to feel safer, all it does any ways is make you less safe. I would love to know how our founding fathers would think about things like this and the Patriot act.
Internet providers to cut off child porn
Three companies settle after probe by Cuomo
By Susan Schulman
Updated: 06/11/08 6:50 AM
Associated Press
Andrew M. Cuomo announces agreement with three service providers.
Under pressure from the state attorney general, Internet providers Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint are taking steps to block computer access to news groups that disseminate child pornography and to knock down Web sites hosting the illegal material.
The moves, long sought by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, are considered a significant effort to deal with the child pornography explosion on the Internet around the world.
"This is a major step forward. We hope this will become a model for the rest of the industry," said Ernie Allen, head of the center based in Alexandria, Va.
State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced the settlement Tuesday after an eight-month investigation by his office into the proliferation of online child pornography.
Under the settlement, the three major Internet providers, which did not admit any wrongdoing, not only will take steps to rid their own networks of child pornography but also will contribute $1.12 million to fund additional efforts by the attorney general's office and the national center to remove child pornography from the Internet.
In "The Child Porn Pipeline," a series published last June, The Buffalo News revealed that most of the commercial child pornography disseminated worldwide - one study put the figure at 62 percent - is posted through Internet service providers in the United States.
The series described the national center's efforts to persuade service providers to shut down and block access to child pornography sites.
But many providers resisted, saying that policing the Internet was not their job.
A decade ago, service providers in Great Britain began closing sites and cutting off access to Internet child pornography.
British computer servers and Web sites, which once provided 18 percent of commercial child pornography produced in the world, now account for 1 percent.
While U. S. law enforcement focused much of its attention on arresting the people viewing, and to a lesser extent making and distributing, child pornography, Cuomo's investigation went after the Internet companies whose servers and networks host and disseminate the material.
Allen has supported that approach, saying so many people view child pornography that "unless you turn off the spigot, you are not really going to address the enormity of the problem."
The undercover probe by the attorney general's office found 88 different news groups - online bulletin boards where users can upload and download files - with a total of 11,390 lewd photos of young children, including some being raped.
Posing as subscribers, investigators then complained to the Internet providers about the availability of child pornography.
But the material remained available, and the service providers contended they were not responsible for the material that others share on news groups or post on Web sites, Cuomo said.
But he rejected that argument and threatened to bring charges against the companies, which led to the settlement announced Tuesday.
Two of the three service providers agreed to block access to news groups linked to child pornography, while Time Warner said it will eliminate news groups from its services.
"It's a small percentage of our users," said Alex Dudley, Time Warner spokesman.
"We are not comfortable with them," he continued. "Our best recourse is to take them down. Time Warner is discontinuing news groups."
The three Internet companies also agreed to work with the national center to remove Web sites hosting child pornography.
The center maintains a list of 39,000 Web addresses that contained child pornography, Allen said.
A few of the larger Internet companies use the list to identify and remove child pornography, but thousands of smaller Internet companies do not, the center has said.
Time Warner said that, upon learning that no action had been taken on a child pornography report, the company, under its established policy, immediately submitted the report to the national center.
Once it received confirmation of child pornography, the company took down the news groups, Dudley said.
At Verizon, any child pornography news group reported to the company was taken down promptly, said Eric Rabe, vice president for communications.
Verizon and Time Warner also are working with the national center to take down any confirmed child pornography sites, their spokesmen said.
Sprint spokesman Matthew Sullivan said getting child pornography off the Internet is one of the company's priorities.
"Battling this scourge requires close collaboration of many parties," he said at Tuesday's news conference in Cuomo's New York City office.
Verizon, with 8.2 million subscribers, and Time Warner's Road Runner, with 7.9 million, are two of the five largest Internet service providers in the world, while Sprint is one of the three largest wireless companies in the United States.
While the five largest companies control a major share of the Internet market, thousands of smaller servers are also involved in Internet operations.
Cuomo said his investigation is continuing.
sschulman AT buffnews.com
