US bill requres open wifi providers to report offensive content

[nrune]

For US only.

US House approved the SAFE act H R 3791 a whopping 409 to 2.

From C-net:http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9829759-38.html
This is what the SAFE Act requires: Anyone providing an "electronic communication service" or "remote computing service" to the public who learns about the transmission or storage of information about certain illegal activities or an illegal image must (a) register their name, mailing address, phone number, and fax number with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's "CyberTipline" and (b) "make a report" to the CyberTipline that (c) must include any information about the person or Internet address behind the suspect activity and (d) the illegal images themselves. (By the way, "electronic communications service" and "remote computing service" providers already have some reporting requirements under existing law too.)

So there is already a law in place dealing with this, and this is likely to harm free and open wifi. Oh and the US senate is likely to pass the bill. Election year coming up... Ugg.

Nrune

[Benson]

Yes, it requires you, should you be running driftnet and come across some kiddie porn, to store it on your hard drive, which is a highly illegal activity, while you're registering in order to file a report including the images. The cops can now bust you for storing kiddie porn on your hard drive.

You could do like in the old days, and just figure out who is using your network for kiddie porn, and beat them up (and MAC ban them, of course). But now you either keep mum about the porn and go to jail for beating them up, or you get off the hook for that, but go to jail for not making a proper report.

Or, you can look the other way when the kiddie porn comes on, sparing yourself lots of trouble, and letting the kiddie porn viewer get off the hook. So the results of this, should it pass, would be... same number of reports, less kiddie porn viewers being beat up. Lovely!!
Even if you buy into the big-government big-brother notion such things are based on, this seems like one of the dumber laws you could make "to save the children."

We may hope Bush vetos this, but I haven't heard what he thinks of it.

[ninjatuned]

Ars has a good post about this:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071206-safe-act-wont-turn-mom-and-pop-shops-into-wifi-cops.html

[thunder7]

I'm not sure how it works in the rest of the world, but here in the U.S. politicians generally only do what they are PAID to do (By the lobbyists of course) and know this: BIG election season coming up so they are pandering to all the supposed hot button issues.

In the upcoming months we will begin to see yet again the same cycle of online chat room stings that also precede elections.

[Karel Jansens]

And you all laughed when Pammie Anderson did that Barb Wire Flick...

[Benson]

In the upcoming months we will begin to see yet again the same cycle of online chat room stings that also precipitate elections.

Nitpick: Not sure exactly what term you were looking for, as precede doesn't quite have the right connotation, but precipitate ain't it. Unless you really think that chat room stings cause elections.
And I know a guy doing time right now from one of those stings in 2006. Bad time to be messing around with strangers who claim to be a couple years younger than you.

[barry99705]

Real easy fix. Lock down your wireless! You'd have to be a freaking ***** to have an open wifi access point anyway.

[nrune]

Real easy fix. Lock down your wireless! You'd have to be a freaking ***** to have an open wifi access point anyway.

Well I was playing round the idea if running a Fon site to get access to to other Fon sites. http://www.fon.com/en/ Not a heck of a lot of wifi coverage out here.

nrune

[thunder7]

Nitpick: Not sure exactly what term you were looking for, as precede doesn't quite have the right connotation, but precipitate ain't it. Unless you really think that chat room stings cause elections.
And I know a guy doing time right now from one of those stings in 2006. Bad time to be messing around with strangers who claim to be a couple years younger than you.

Grammar lesson appreciated. Small bout of cranial flatulence was the official cause......

I also knew somebody who got caught up in one of those stings. I certainly dont have a problem with them by any means. What ever it takes to get a sick loser like that off the streets.

I have a problem with them being used only to raise a candidate's visibility.

[barry99705]

Well I was playing round the idea if running a Fon site to get access to to other Fon sites. http://www.fon.com/en/ Not a heck of a lot of wifi coverage out here.

nrune

I know what fon is. If you do it, pick up one hell of a logging machine. Under this new bill, you're going to have to log every freaking thing that goes over it just to cover your own butt.


It all sounds cool (the sharing your internet thing) until the FBI comes crawling up your butt with a bore scope because some dork down the street sends an email to george.w.bush(at)whitehouse.gov saying he's going to blow him up. When it comes down to it, it's your ip address the isp logs say the e-mail came from. Sure if you're smart your wifi router has a log of the mac addresses that have connected to it. They're still going to take every piece of computing hardware you have to analyze.

[Jerome]

Actually, Fon do the logging. They don't log the data, of course, but they can tell the authorities who was connected at what time.

All this being said, I think those bills (and they don't only exist in the US) are a bad idea. Their main effect will be that you won't find free wifi any more, that's all. People provide free wifi as a public service to their neighbours and you want to hold them responsible for it? What's next? Volunteer firemen will have to check for drugs in burning houses?

[ArnimS]

Real easy fix. Lock down your wireless! You'd have to be a freaking ***** to have an open wifi access point anyway.

Why? I pay for the bandwidth for an open access point. And providing passerby with free internet is a good thing for society in general, as it reduces costs. Reducing costs and raising efficiency leaves everyone with more free change in their pocket to do what they want.

The entire idea of 'illegal data' is an immediate implementation of thought police and totalitarianism. Only real crimes - those that harm real people (child abuse, theft, murder, terrorism etc) - merit enforcement and prosecution by the state.