McCain does his part to shut down the Internet
Remember, when they finally pull the plug on the Internet it will be to “save the children” or “fight the terrorists.” And guys like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Mark Steyn will be fighting tooth and nail to help shut down the greatest free-speech technology. And then the pulpit will truly only belong to the select few.
From CNET News:
Millions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000, if a new proposal in the U.S. Senate came into law.
In a speech on the Senate floor this week, the Arizona Republican and former presidential candidate warned that “technology has contributed to the greater distribution and availability, and, some believe, desire for child pornography.” McCain scored 31 of 100 points on a 2006 election guide scoring technology-related votes.
After child pornography or some forms of “obscenity” are found and reported, the Web site must retain any “information relating to the facts or circumstances” of the incident for at least six months. Webmasters would be immune from civil and criminal liability if they followed the specified procedures exactly.
McCain’s proposal, called the “Stop the Online Exploitation of Our Children Act”, requires that reports be submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which in turn will forward to the relevant police agency.
The other section of McCain’s legislation targets convicted sex offenders. It would create a federal registry of “any e-mail address, instant-message address, or other similar Internet identifier” they use, and punish sex offenders with up to 10 years in prison if they don’t supply it.
Fox News must be proud of McCain’s cunning usage of “some believe” as he deftly attributes a belief to no one. Because as of now, this law fights nothing and only adds a layer of government control onto the Internet.
“This constitutionally dubious proposal is being made apparently mostly based on fear or political considerations rather than on the facts,” said Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
Just something to remember when McCain is being trumpeted as a Presedential candidate who was a prisoner while defending America’s freedoms — as a politician, he’d take away your freedoms in a heartbeat.
–WKW
December 11th, 2006 at 6:36 am
WKW, thanks for bring this to our attention. Having read the c/net article and the proposed Act, we are troubled by its scope, penalties, lack of specificity and direction.
As a perspective, McCain sponsored the Children’s Internet Protection Act in 2000, which required schools and libraries to use filtering software to protect children from Internet pornography and child predators. The law did neither, because the kids can now with newer technology get the same content from their home computer, because of lax parental supervivion, from PDAs and from the latest cell phones.
The new Act, SOEOCA, (in Navaho it means “beware of a warrior from the desert”), threatens million of commercial Web sites and personal blogs with egregious fines for failure to report evil image or video posting.
NetRightsAdvocates is also concerned about Rep. DeGette’s mandatory data retention proposal for the 110th Congress.
Chief Advocate
NetRightsAdvocates.com
December 18th, 2006 at 9:36 am
[…] From Yours Truly: Millions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000, if a new proposal in the U.S. Senate came into law. […]