Does Blocking Child Porn Put Pressure On ISPs to Block Music?

It's about time, don't you think? If hospitals or amusement parks or funeral parlors were used this routinely for this kind of rampant criminal and civil infraction, they'd be properly blanketed with law enforcement, too. We all enjoy privacy rights up to the point where law enforcement can "show just cause." Ha. "Just cause." We've been there for a decade or more, and the courts have taken their time trying to balance constitutional rights with rampant, relentless illegal online behavior. Copyright infringement notably, will prove the death of this once free and great shared network. At the end of the day, human decency can no longer be trusted to respect ownership. It's our own, sad fault. Thanks, Pirates.

I understand that child porn goes on through many types of communication, whether it's video camera, internet, etc. ISP do have privacy laws, but they should make a law that if the ISP is listed to you and you are the one allowing child porn, then you should be reported. I have kids and i don't want to log onto the internet and see child porn, that's just not right.

THIS IS HOW IT STARTS !!! WARNIG !!! (please note: I believe child porn is a hideous crime)

That being said, anyone who would sacrifice freedoms for safety deserves neither. (A quote from Benjamin Franklin) If we allow any service provider the right to choose for us on any issue, they will choose for us on every issue. Pandora’s box, slippery slope, choose your poison. It is the job of the police to track down and prosecute offenders, not some private corporate entity that doesn't have to answer to the voting public.

Once the door has been opened for this type of corporate censorship of the public domain, all ISP's will follow suit and we will soon LOOSE OUR FREEDOM TO FREELY SHARED INFORAMTION. This is a HUGE DEAL and yet another ploy by the private interest groups to test the waters on censorship for future profits. I.E. today the say they only want to block questionable sites, tomorrow they will block competing sites, and the day after charge a premium for limited access like with plans resembling their cable packages, pay per click ISP style.

Heather--

One, the ISP's are blocking significant swaths of Usenet (Declan McCullagh in CNet explains further). That's fairly novel.

Two, from the NYT article, it appeared that the NY AG office put the squeeze on the ISP's by constructing a potential complaint around deceptive business practice.

That's how the game is played. Anything related to policing copyright violations is a different squeeze play.

You should have covered the Computers, Freedom, Privacy conference. (yes, I realize, Paris beckoned...)

Jon,

Understood that it's the Usenet groups, as I wrote in my post.

And absolutely, NY State AG used deceptive practices to put the pressure on. But one of the IPSs arguments has been that this is hard (who is deciding what the child porn is. Courts can't even agree on COPA.) Now you have a precedent that others can go to Congress with and bash the ISPs over the head with.

The Democraps are in bed with the entertainment industry, and when they get 60 votes in Congress (let alone O'Vomit) the days of internet freedom ARE OVER, kids.

If you want to download something....ANYTHING... you'd better do it before January 09, 2009.

Heather-- What the CNet article detailed more than the NYT was that some of the ISP's were cutting access to *all* Usenet. That had surprised me.

But on your point, every industry plays the regulatory game. The game for Internet Service Providers was set in motion in the 1990's. Some ISP's are more accomodating with subpoenas for copyright infringement; others less so.

I don't see this move as particularly game-changing. If you are aware of a particular bill that might be now prioritized, by all means, let us know.

My feeling is that although the crimes should be addressed, and precautions should be taken, the outright removal of ALL newsgroups seems entirely unfair. There are plenty of newsgroups that are completely legitimate. Microsoft, Apple, Google and even our Government all have newsgroup relations. TO kill this access to information seems a great deal overboard.
FOr me, this was the final straw. TWC was only kept around as my ISP because of Usenet access. Without this, I am leaving. I joined www.newsdemon.com and they're actually better than any usenet access that Ive had with an ISP, or with any other Usenet provider for that matter.
Now the mission is to find another ISP that has my interest in mind rather than one that takes advantage of a situation in order to cut costs on bandwidth.
D. Linus