Wifi. It was fun while it lasted. Sipping on a caffe mocha while surfing the net in the airport or while studying for final exams. How convenient. How nice. How over.
The SAFE Act passed the House of Representatives by a spectacular vote of 409-2 (of course, one of the two dissents was my man Ron Paul.) If Ron Paul voted against it, that means it’s unconstitutional. End of story. The federal government isn’t authorized to handle these types of things, only the individual states. If Ron Paul’s against it, it also means the SAFE Act is most likely bad in some back-end way while it pretends to be a good little righteous bill to prevent the scourge of child pornography (while probably doing the opposite).
Everyone wants an end to child porn, but apparently now every single internet provider in America, including the local coffee shop which provides wifi access, will be responsible for “spying” on those using its internet services to see whether they are child pornographers. It sounds all well and good, but… that means your ISP will be looking at what you do online, or it will be fined to the tune of $300,000. The ISP must give up your email address, urls visited, and other information in order to be in full compliance.
A few notes about the bill:
-The bill was “rushed” through passing at the House, without ever being made publicly available beforehand. That means constituents, or the local coffee shop owner, wouldn’t be able to call in and object to it.
-By providing the particular images in question to the national CyberTip line, the ISPs will be breaking existing laws to not break this law– the ISP will have to be in possession of the unlawful images in order to hand them over to the government.
-Even free wi-fi operators will be affected by this bill, not just “Big Brother” Conglomerate ISP.
My first thought is that those who own this type of ISP now have a very handy government-provided excuse why they themselves might be in possession of child porn: “Officer, I can explain. I was simply holding the images to report the real offender to the government in compliance with the SAFE Act. I was waiting to get the person’s email address.”
My second thought is that since this bill might mean the death of free Wi-Fi and social networking sites, not to mention free email providers, ISPs themselves may have pushed to pass it– no free Wi-Fi or email means that everyone has to pay for the Internet and for ISPs’ email. The fact is that no one really knows what this bill means, because the lawmakers didn’t read it, their aides barely scanned it, and the public didn’t get to see it beforehand.
Finally, this is simply a backdoor way to get ISPs to spy on all Internet traffic. “We’re going to pass a bill to spy on everyone’s Internet traffic”– outrage in the streets. “We’re going to pass a bill in which ISPs will monitor for child porn images”– 409-2.
Same bill, just spun differently.
Tags: SAFE Act, SAFE Act child pornography, SAFE Act Ron Paul, child pornography laws, SAFE Act US House of Representatives
What about the people who use their neighbor’s wifi access? Are they going to punish the people who don’t know how to protect their routers against these leeches? It’s basically the same thing. What if a coffee shop doesn’t provide public access, but just doesn’t know how to encrypt their router? Will they be punished too? Also, what about city-wide free wifi like in San Francisco or Austin? Will the city be the one in trouble for this?
Dirty Apple
December 8th, 2007
Those are also things that could be interpreted from this bill, I believe (although no one knows of course, since the final one passed isn’t the one released to the public).
It does seem to be a detriment to municipalities that choose to provide this type of access– ISPs have previously tried to pass laws so that cities CAN’T provide wireless, and perhaps this is another step in trying to prevent free competition.
libertariangirl
December 8th, 2007
Hmmn, let’s see now, not a single mention in the entire article that the US House of Reps is controlled by the Democrats. Imagine if a Republican controlled House had done this? Imagine the uproard from Leftists and Leftist Libertarians.
Note also, that the other Congressman who voted “nay” Rep. Broun of Georgia is a Republican. Not a single mention of this in the entire article. So, the reader is left with the impression that only “reliable Ron” the fluke who we all know is not really a “Republican,” was the only “no” vote.
Nah, there’s no bias in the liberal media, and certainly no bias in the leftist libertarian media.
Eric Dondero
December 9th, 2007
There is a special election on December 11th in the First District of Virginia. If you know anyone there who loves Liberty, ask them to volunteer to work at the polls for Lucky Narain or Phil Forgit.
The Republicans are running a guy that was selected by the religious Reich and who is in favor of Bush’s domestic spying agenda.
Clairese Lippincott
December 9th, 2007
You’re right, Eric, I didn’t give Paul Broun his just due. I like him a lot.
The article probably only mentioned Ron Paul because he’s getting more attention lately by running for president– and I believe Paul Broun is a brand new member of Congress (and certainly a welcome one to me from the way he has voted on a few things). An interesting factoid is that Broun used to be a Democrat himself (as did Reagan!
). Ron Paul has always run as either a Republican and one time as a Libertarian.
libertariangirl
December 9th, 2007
Republicans win in Virginia! The GOP won overwhelmingly for the Virginia seat, and in Ohio which was closer, with Bob Latta.
A sure sign that the Democrats surge in 2006, might have been overblown.
Newly elected Congressman Rob Wittman of VA sounds like he’ll be a great addition to the GOP’s Fiscal Conservative wing.
Eric Dondero
December 15th, 2007
Well, the Democrats were elected to do one thing (get us out of Iraq), and have failed to do that in a serious way and in fact pass Bush’s bills every time they vote on them, so I think people are upset with both sides at this point. I’ll look into Wittman.
libertariangirl
December 15th, 2007
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Alena
April 20th, 2008
Спасибо классная статья
Konstantin
December 14th, 2008
Действительно классная темка.
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December 16th, 2008
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Sitnikov35Roman
July 28th, 2010