Major ISPs agree to block child porn newsgroups (Goodbye USENET)

AP ^ | 6/10/08 | Michael Gormley

[LibWhacker]

To be effective, they'll have to block all of USENET, or at least the unmoderated newsgroups, which is, what, something like 99% of all of them? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

[KoRn]

This is like making driving illegal to stop drunk drivers!

[devane617]

it will be like playing whack-a-mole...it is so easy to set up usenet type groups that to block them all will be a huge job. but, i agree with making an effort to rid the net of these pervs

[2ndDivisionVet]

As if the democrats care about child porn! NAMBLA is one of their constituent groups!!

[Perdogg]

What about Skynet?

[goldstategop]

I think we need to do what we can to stop pedophiles from victimizing our kids. This is pure filth.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[ShadowAce]

[eleni121]

Even better Mr Cumo—friend of ACLU and the APA and NAMBLA and that paragon of virtue Herr Spizer - is to execute child molestors and those who put kids in these situations—that will stop em dead.

How about it Mr Cumo? Will the your buddies the lefties allow you to do that?

[CaspersGh0sts]

USENET is a great source for more obscure music. Great selection of jazz and Celtic music, for instance. It’s a bit hit or miss, but you can usually find something pretty interesting there.

[kms61]

Nobody but sick freaks will miss the child porn. The problem is that they won’t stop at this. Authoritarianism never sleeps.

[dayglored]

> The problem is that they won’t stop at this. Authoritarianism never sleeps.

First to go, sites that support illegal activities like child porn.

Next to go, sites that support socially-frowned-upon activities that aren't strictly illegal, just unsavory.

Next after that, politically incorrect websites.

FreeRepublic won't be far behind...

Child pornography is ALREADY ILLEGAL. Just enforce the current laws!!

But you see, their goal is not to stop child pornography. It is to establish network censorship at the ISP level.

That is how, one day, FreeRepublic will die.

[null and void]

Maybe.

Scrubbing the ‘net of anything is harder than getting pee out of a swimming pool.

[dayglored]

> Scrubbing the ‘net of anything is harder than getting pee out of a swimming pool.

True.

I'll bet they try everything from putting poison in it, to draining and "refilling" it, before they're done...

[shibumi]

"This is like making driving illegal to stop drunk drivers!"


DON'T GIVE THEM ANY IDEAS!!!!!

[null and void]

Yes. IIRC the was an article posted on FR a few weeks ago where LEO’s were posting their own kiddie porn. Downloading it gave them probable cause to knock down your door and confiscate your ‘puter as evidence.

Thank God my addiction is perfectly legal chocolate...

[lainie]

Right. What these people don’t realize is that anybody can post any image to any newsgroup. If a bunch of criminals cook up a plan in email to share files on rec.arts.tv.soaps, then that’s what they’ll do.

[lainie]

(If chocolate's your addiction, boy do I have the cookie recipe for you. I made these today. They might be illegal in some states.)

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I think we need to do what we can to stop pedophiles from victimizing our kids. This is pure filth.

I agree...Think about the sick stuff children can see on the internet....

[traviskicks]

Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.

[four more in O 4]

To be effective, they'll have to block all of USENET, or at least the unmoderated newsgroups, which is, what, something like 99% of all of them? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

What are they going to do? Check every image on every newsgroup for illegal content, then ban the group?

Last I knew there were 100,000+ groups with more than 200 gigs per day of new posts. Let's say a single picture is 100K, that equates to possibly 2 million pictures per day someone will have to examine for content (after they are downloaded). Granted, the 2 million is on the high side as the majority of traffic in usenet is made up of movies (a lot of porn) and music, but the task is daunting to say the least.

The possibility this will even make a dent is 0. Short of completely blocking port 119, this will fail the same way other attempts at censorship on the internet have.