[IP] Re: ISPs Agree to Block Access to C-Porn Web Sites and Usenet Groups

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Andrew C Burnette [acb@acb.net]
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 3:42 PM
To: David Farber; Lauren Weinstein
Subject: Re: [IP] ISPs Agree to Block Access to C-Porn Web Sites and Usenet Groups

Dave, Lauren,

As Tommy Lee Jones said in the movie "Men in Black"

"A person is smart, people are stupid."

somehow Miriam Webster should include that quote alongside the
definition of the term pandering.

Best regards,
andy

David Farber wrote:
> Laurens comments also reflect my fears every time the Hill starts to touch the net. In the NetNeu rush to get the Hill, as an example,  to pass laws people forget that once the politicians get the smell of the net blood, they will feast on it and pass laws that appeal to their voters or their funders last and furiously.
>
> Dave
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Lauren Weinstein [lauren@vortex.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:08 AM
> To: David Farber
> Cc: lauren@vortex.com
> Subject: ISPs Agree to Block Access to C-Porn Web Sites and Usenet Groups
>
>       ISPs Agree to Block Access to C-Porn Web Sites and Usenet Groups
>
>                http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000389.html
>
>
> Greetings.  As this New York Times article
> ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/nyregion/10internet.html ) notes
> in passing, and I would suggest much more forcefully, efforts by
> ISPs to cut off access to any particular class of content may make
> it more difficult for "casual" searchers to access such sites, but
> will likely be largely ineffective against anyone with the will to
> work a bit harder to find such material -- and that's not even
> taking into account private, encrypted distribution networks.
>
> Of broader interest perhaps is how much time will pass before "other
> entities" demand that ISPs (attempt) to block access to other
> materials that one group or another feels subscribers should not be
> permitted to see or hear.  How long before search engines are urged,
> pressured, or ordered to remove search result listings that the
> government or other groups deem inappropriate under the political
> criteria of the moment?
>
> In practice, of course -- as I've written many times -- effective
> censorship of the Internet is impossible.  You can make access more
> difficult or more of a hassle, but in the end censorship efforts --
> even for seemingly laudable goals -- will drive the materials of
> interest ever deeper underground into forms that make them even
> more difficult to track.  That's just the way it is, like it or not.
>
> --Lauren--
> Lauren Weinstein
> lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
> Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
> http://www.pfir.org/lauren
> Co-Founder, PFIR
>    - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
> Co-Founder, NNSquad
>    - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
> Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
> Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
> Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------



-------------------------------------------