US attack on online porn
p2p news / p2pnet: The Bush/Cheney administration wants an all-out attack against online porn sites.
The ” fatally flawed” Child Pornography and Obscenity Prevention Amendments of 2006, currently awaiting Senate approval, will require communications providers to, “report the presence of child pornography on their systems by strengthening criminal penalties for failing to do so,” says the Internet Content Rating Association.
“In addition, the Attorney General added a proposal to mandate the labeling of sexually explicit material with ‘warning labels’,” says the ICRA.
The new legislation proposes fines of $150,000 for service providers which knowingly fail to report child pornography on their networks, and a $300,000 fine for each additional violation, says vnunet.com.
“It also seeks to force porn sites to present visitors with a welcome page devoid of any sexually explicit images to prevent unwanted exposure.”
US attorney general Alberto Gonzales said some investigations have been hampered by the failure of Internet service providers to retain certain records long enough to help authorities identify purveyors of child porn, says the Associated Press.
“He did not propose a remedy Thursday.”
But, “A nationally mandated system like the one proposed today for sites with sexually explicit material cannot guarantee international compliance,” declares the ICRA, saying, “self-regulation of legal Internet content leads to the best balance between the free flow of digital content and the protection of children from potentially harmful material”.
US-based servers will simply move offshore, “to avoid this well intentioned, but fatally flawed law,” says the association, calling for a self-labeling system , “applicable in any language. Parents can use filtering software to allow or disallow access to Web sites based on the information declared in the label.”
Would the act also signal new attacks on p2p applications?
The Bush/Cheney administration is firmly locked behind the entertainment cartels in their ongoing efforts to gain control over online activities, and kiddie porn is the always reliable, always available excuse employed by the corporate music and movie industries whenever they want new legislation introduced.
Also See:
Internet Content Rating Association – Internet Content Rating Association Responds to DOJ Regulations on Internet Safety, April 21, 2006
vnunet.com – US calls for online porn restrictions, April 21, 2006
Associated Press – Hard line is taken on child Net porn, April 21, 2006
April 21st, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Yay!!!
April 22nd, 2006 at 3:56 am
Bush must have searched for something seemingly innocent, like “water sports” and gotten a shock at the first few pages of results.
Of course if the amazingly prudish US govt hadn’t blocked the xxx TLD proposal, controlling porn would be a whole lot easier. Especially if it was made mandatory instead of optional.
But no, that would be logical. It might even make sense. Can’t have that!
April 29th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Go to the Dept of Justice’s own website to see that there is no corresponding increase in crime to go after adult content:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/gvc.htm
Unfortunately, the new amendments, and even the original law, are designed to go after adult content–there are adequate laws in place to go after child porn. Child porn is just a bait and switch in these laws to go after regular adult porn.