ISPs Agree to Block Access to C-Porn Web Sites and Usenet Groups

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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



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