Canadian ISP Blocks Web Sites They Don't Like

An AC sends: "In response to the printing of the URL of an inappropriate web site on a series of safety-tip trading cards handed out to elementary students in New Brunswick, Canada, the provinces' major ISPs decided to take matters into their own hands, and block access to the web site for all their customers: school, government, and... private individuals. A spokesman for the phone company NBTel says "Once they've [the RCMP] given us the okay that there is nothing illegal on the web site we'll just turn it back up." . The printing of such a site on the card was apparently unintentional, as it was designed by children. Just no one seems to have thought to check it out before it was printed. Here you can see the CBC News Story." This is the third Canada-vs-website story in the last couple of days. Something in the water?

Comments

It's a wonder that this doesn't happen more often.

[Perianwyr Stormcrow]

Think about it, how hard is it, really, for an ISP to transparently block a site? They could just expunge it from their domain records or mis-point the domain name to something inactive, and cause the real site to be unreachable by their customers... and no one would probably ever notice. After all, isn't it true that most people never try again once they've attempted to reach an Internet site that's down or inactive?

--Perianwyr Stormcrow

Censorship anyone?

[SlashGeek]

This has to be a joke. There are millions upon millions of porn sites on the net, and easily found on Yahoo or even just trying something in the location bar. If children want to find them, they will. Why can nobody take parental supervision as a method of content controll anymore?

"But the companies say anaconda-dot-com is a special case and they reserve the right to block any site that might offend customers."

This is crazy too. "Might offend customers?" Who are they to decide what "might" offend me. What offends me is that and ISP, who gets paid to provide a connection to the internet, nothing less, nothing more, believes they have the right to regulate LEGAL content. This isn't child porn, or warez here. What ever happened to freedom of speech? Anaconda.com is a business, and one that depends on visitors to turn a profit. What right does and ISP have to block access to a legal business? It wouldn't be legal for a road crew to intentionally block the enterance to a parking lot of a porn shop just because they built the road. This is no different, you are merely paying a toll to the ISP to use their roads. I realize this is in Canada, and being American, I don't know how close the freedom of speech laws are to ours, but it would seem to me that private business doesn't hold the athority to dictate what is law.

"RCMP computer crime investigator Corporal Jeff Adam says nothing on the site is illegal but it could be considered obscene under Canadian law"

Would some Canadian Slashdotter please explain what such laws are? And even still, wouldn't that be up to the courts to decide and not private enterprise?

One thing the article didn't provide any information on is, just how did the domain name wind up on these cards to begin with?