Slashdot Mirror


Pennsylvania Refuses to Disclose Banned Website List

koehn writes "In an interesting turn of events, the Attorney General of Pennsylvania has ordered all PA ISPs to block sites that have child porn. If that's not bad enough, they won't tell you which sites those are because - so the excuse goes - that could be construed as 'disseminating pornography.' So much for public review, huh?" See the previous story.

337 comments

  1. Goddamnit. by The_Unforgiven · · Score: 0, Redundant

    /me marks one more state to not move to.

    --
    http://wsulug.org
    1. Re:Goddamnit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about those of us who already live there?

    2. Re:Goddamnit. by braeden · · Score: 1

      Ahh yes, sarcasm... how appropriate.

    3. Re: Goddamnit. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2, Insightful


      > /me marks one more state to not move to.

      Which ones are left on your list?

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    4. Re: Goddamnit. by The_Unforgiven · · Score: 1

      /me looks over his list.

      Canada. /me awaits the onslaught of people that take his posts way too seriously.

      --
      http://wsulug.org
    5. Re: Goddamnit. by Moloch666 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wanna make a /. convoy, eh?

      --
      Understanding is a three-edged sword. -- Kosh Naranek
    6. Re:Goddamnit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For you, we feel a mixture of pity and mirth.

    7. Re:Goddamnit. by UniverseIsADoughnut · · Score: 1

      "" /me marks one more state to not move to.""

      although I understand what to many of you this means and your general complaint/fear. Do relize bitching about this does make you look like a petaphile (sp?). I think people should be clear if they are complaining about people getting blocked from sites or complaining you can't get kiddy porn. If your in the later I think you should have life blocked from you, not just the kiddy porn

    8. Re:Goddamnit. by cymen · · Score: 1

      Yeah, because we all know all protestors for a cause only protest because they are guilty of something and want to be free. Come on already. Open up your brain cavity and insert a friggin clue.

    9. Re:Goddamnit. by eyeye · · Score: 1

      look kid, why don't you curl up with a dictionary for a bit, or maybe go out and get some sunlight, then come back when you can post something more coherent!

      --
      Bush and Blair ate my sig!
    10. Re:Goddamnit. by schmink182 · · Score: 1

      ...Or it makes you look like a freedom-of-speech activist, who is willing to take the good with the bad as long as it keeps everyone free to do as they wish.

    11. Re:Goddamnit. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dipshit.

  2. Bad for Who? by Ken@WearableTech · · Score: 4, Funny

    the Attorney General of Pennsylvania has ordered all PA ISPs to block sites that have child porn. If that's not bad enough...

    Waa... Hunh... I had to read this a few times to realize it's not supposed be a joke.

    Bad enough for who?

    1. Re:Bad for Who? by Carlos+Laviola · · Score: 2, Informative

      For everyone. ISPs are just carriers. They're not supposed to be filtering based on content. That's akin to the Attorney General ordering Fedex to block all packages that have $WHATEVER material, which is illegal.

    2. Re:Bad for Who? by Gortbusters.org · · Score: 1

      Tis true, but on the other hand people can mistakenly surf to a domain name they think is good and end up at a horrible site. I think it's a little different than Fedex because Fedex has a one to one relationship. A sends B a package. Visitor C never sees that package.

      Little Timmy surfing around doesn't want to mistakenly see little Sarah on some illegal site.

      --
      --------
      Free your mind.
    3. Re:Bad for Who? by rf0 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Bad for the kiddy fiddlers. So good for everyone else.

      Rus

    4. Re:Bad for Who? by nick+this · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Several things that bother me about it:

      1. It's a slippery slope. Once the goverment decides that its job is to censor web sites, where does it stop? All pornography? Terrorist sites? Legitimate news sites from "terrorist countries"? Legitimate news sites period? Bad precedent, in my opinion.

      2. This is a job that should be done at the end-user location. Want to surf safely? Don't surf on machines that don't have content filtering programs on them. Want your child to surf safely? Don't let him/her surf on machines that don't have content filtering programs on them.

      3. Lastly, what are we protecting people from? It's an evil world, and evil stuff exists out there. We can't ignore it. And hiding it doesn't make it go away. I'm not sure what this fundamentally accomplishes.

    5. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think Timmy wouldn't mind seeing Sarah, as long as Sarah wasn't his sister. Or if he's a goatse fan.

    6. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good call. Why wouldn't a 14 year old want to see a 14 year old naked chick? Why shouldn't he?

    7. Re:Bad for Who? by _bug_ · · Score: 1

      IANAL but there are U.S. laws governing what can and can't be sent through the mail.

      Is that ONLY the USPS or would that include FedEx, UPS, ect...?

      Certainly the various laws governing trafficing of illegal materials across state lines would include any postal service such as FedEx. So couldn't that apply to child porn as well? Meaning that regardless of what the codes relating to the postal service apply to, there are other laws that this could be legal under.

      Again, IANAL. Perhaps /. needs to get it's own band of lawyers who can comment on the laws relating to various /. posts such as this.

    8. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah... i dont see the problem here.... it makes sense to me not to show the list.... MOST people can dissern which content would be included to be blocked and thus would block it.... why would any body be upset that they wouldnt release such a list the public domain

    9. Re:Bad for Who? by Ken@WearableTech · · Score: 1

      How is this Funny? Who MOD'ed that?

    10. Re:Bad for Who? by commodoresloat · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Who decides when a website contains "child porn"? Child porn is illegal under Federal law. The government enforces those laws, not ISPs. The courts interpret those laws, not ISPs. Now an ISP is required by law to enforce decisions made in secret by the government. And the government won't release the list of blocked sites -- so a webmaster has no idea if his website is considered "child porn" and no opportunity to defend it.

      If the AG knows of child porn sites he should shut them down directly, by law. If they aren't in PA he can send the URLs to the federal government. But nothing in the Constitution can be construed to permit prior restraint of expression that has not been deemed illegal.

    11. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful


      "Bad enough for who?"

      Bad enough for the public. By going after the ISPs and not the pornographers, you're guaranteeing they will just spring up somewhere else and won't fear the law.

    12. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "no opportunity to defend it"

      It would be obvious which sites were blocked, by simply getting an isp outside PA to allow access, and show that no PA isp's carry it. Post the links to Cryptome.org. It'd be in the news within hours.

    13. Re:Bad for Who? by Tailhook · · Score: 1

      How does the AG shut down foreign sites? Iraqi child porn sites are obviously in jeopardy, but beyond that I'm not sure the AG has much power...

      --
      Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
    14. Re:Bad for Who? by Com2Kid · · Score: 1
      • Little Timmy surfing around doesn't want to mistakenly see little Sarah on some illegal site.


      No, of course not! Because Little Timmy should see big hootered hairy woman just like a Real Man(tm).

      Can't start to early in exposing children to those stereotypes!
    15. Re:Bad for Who? by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

      He doesn't; he reports it to the FBI and they decide what to do from there (such as contact the host country and get the ISP shut down). Someone is providing bandwidth if the site is up; they can be ordered to take the site down. International enforcement of child porn laws does exist.

    16. Re:Bad for Who? by Alsee · · Score: 1

      Bad enough for who?

      Ok, how about I start a list?

      (1) A "site" can have ten thousand webpages from hundreds of different people/companies. This is bad for these innocent people/companies that share the "site".
      (2) This is bad for the people who wish to access the perfectly valid and valuable mentioned above.
      (3) If you read the article you'd see that this Pennsylvania censorship law is going to impact people outside Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has no right to censor people outside the state from accessing material that may be perfectly legal in that other state. (Note: If you find this point unpersuasive consider that my state could decide to sensor slashdot because it has goatse links. Does my state have any right to prevent YOU from reading slashdot?)
      (4) This is bad for the ISP's. The police should be going after criminals. The ISP should not be policing thier customer's communications any more than the telephone company polices what you hear on the phone.
      (5) Since the block list is secrect there is no way to know who else is hurt by this. They could be blocking controversial site on ANY topic.

      But you would have known most of this already had you actually Read The Fine Article. That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's more.

      Just because child abuse is a Bad Thing does not make this law a Good Thing. This censorship certianly isn't going to stop any child abuse. It's just plain censorship, and BADLY IMPLEMENTED CENSORSHIP at that.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    17. Re:Bad for Who? by Com2Kid · · Score: 3, Insightful
      • Bad for the kiddy fiddlers. So good for everyone else.


      You are ASSUMING it is just child pornography that is being blocked.

      How do you know? What if some site showing the current Governor of Pennsylvania's wife in a "compromising" position is also blocked?
    18. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Little Timmy surfing around doesn't want to mistakenly see little Sarah on some illegal site

      Are you some sheltered mormon choir boy living in Salt Lake city or something? I think that the first thing that little Timmy wants to see when he gets on the hyperinterwebnet is pictures of sweet little Sarah and her creamy white thighs on some illegal site.

    19. Re:Bad for Who? by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 0

      "Little Timmy surfing around doesn't want to mistakenly see little Sarah on some illegal site."

      Yes I do.

      --Little Timmy

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
    20. Re:Bad for Who? by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 0

      (1) A "site" can have ten thousand webpages from hundreds of different people/companies. This is bad for these innocent people/companies that share the "site".
      (2) This is bad for the people who wish to access the perfectly valid and valuable mentioned above.

      If the host refuses to remove the content, then its sort of their choice.

      Then again, a look at my analog reports showing most used search querys:

      "Search Query Number of requests
      1. random shit 5
      2. nozomikurahashi 3
      3. rapechild 3
      4. youngteenporn 3
      5. tinisex 2
      6. prechildsex 2
      7. www.lolita.net 2
      8. www%3byoungteenporn.com 2
      9. underageteensex 2
      10. catheadlabs 2
      11. childrensex.jpg 1
      12. autopr0n 1
      13. teenboys/jpg 1
      14. lolita children.com 1
      15. 15years cunt pics 1
      16. 15years erotic 1
      17. lollitafucking 1
      18. netjester 1
      19. key gen xpsp1 1
      20. python vim tab indent 1
      21. 15years lolita 1
      22. autopr0n mirror 1
      23. ppreteen fuck 1
      24. shit logs 1
      25. cummouth.jpg 1
      26. kiddiepo 1
      27. rapechild porn pics 1
      28. pedeofile 1
      29. showfunc.vim 1
      30. preteen 11years 1
      [not listed: 29] 29
      "

      And I have one of the blandest sites there are.
      (google indexed list of things kazaa blocks that I host).

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
    21. Re:Bad for Who? by a+hollow+voice · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I could be wrong, but I think the difference is if you send something illegal through the mail, you get charged with a crime, not the USPS, post office, or mail carriers involved. So applied to this situation, the ISP is innocent and the content providers are guilty.

      If you can't get to the content providers to arrest them, that's not the ISP's fault.

    22. Re:Bad for Who? by Kpt+Kill · · Score: 1

      Had a similar debate on the kazaa lite boards and i was told i support kiddie porn and was a avid user when i tried to use some of these same reasons (albiet poorly worded)

    23. Re:Bad for Who? by Lord+Sauron · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      >Iraqi child porn sites are obviously in jeopardy, but beyond that I'm not sure the AG has much power

      Why do you think the US are invading Iraq ?

    24. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously. That was exactly how I thought when I was 14. I mean, it's not like the girls in my junior high weren't sexually active...still, you know, it's not like I can support that sort of thing. A lot of the 14 year old girls on those sites had their pictures taken by their 45 year old fathers who'd been molesting them since they were 10. Ugly situation all around. Teenage guys will just have to make the sacrifice of jacking off to dirty pictures of women of legal age, poor bastards.

    25. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those of us who aren't "kiddy fiddlers" aren't going to those kinds of sites anyway, so it's neither good nor bad for us from that point.
      The thing is, there are sure to be false-positives. That is bad.

    26. Re:Bad for Who? by plague3106 · · Score: 1

      Um, b/c maybe people want to verify there aren't other non-kiddie porn sites on the list. A very ligitimate fear, i would think.

    27. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Back in the days when I was little Timmy I'd sure wish to see little Sarah on some website!

    28. Re:Bad for Who? by Thomas+M+Hughes · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think you misunderstand the purpose of blocking access to child pornography. There are two reasons why child pornography is considered absolutely horrific by people:

      1) They think its gross that someone gets aroused looking at a child.

      2) Making child pornography requires a child to be put into a sexual situation, before they are of the age to know that such a thing could possibly be wrong.

      Now, legally and constitutionally, the government cannot play thought police. You're allowed to think of gross things all day, as long as you don't hurt anyone with them. So, if someone sits around jacking off to thoughts of children, its gross, but you can't stop it.

      However, if you start taking pictures of it, and forcing real children into that position, you are hurting someone (the child in question). Because of that, the production of child pornography CAN be deemed completely illegal, outlawed, and censored. Its a matter of stopping children from being sexually abused.

      But, simply stopping people from producing this pornography is not enough for most people. They fundamentally feel that anyone who would look at this stuff, even if they haven't produced it, is a sicko who deserves to be punished. Furthermore, they argue that by allowing existing child pornography to be obtained, even though it causes no further harm to the child, it encourages the phedophile to think about his problem even more, and ultimately, will result in more sexual child abuse. The link between viewing porn and increased chances of sexual abuse is not very well proven. Some studies say maybe. Some studies say no.

      Thus, the rationale isn't to stop people from things they shouldn't be looking at. Its two fold. First, they want to stop children from being used in this abusive manner for the photo shoots. Killing the market, kills the abuse. Second, they argue that viewing child pornography makes you more likely to commit sexual child abuse, and on those grounds they try to block it, for the good of the children.

      As a side note, the Supreme Court heard a case about the possibility of virtual child pornography, where you have a computer generated child being sexually depicted, without ever having a real child involved. I forget how the court ultimately ruled, but I believe they found the law to be overbroad, and struck it down.

    29. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      1. It's a slippery slope. Once the goverment decides that its job is to censor web sites, where does it stop?

      It stops right there.

      God, I hate "slippery slope" arguments. Look, all gubmints have banner personal possession of nuclear weapons, yet you are still permitted to own and carry toothpicks, and (I might be going out on a limb here) will be until the end of time.

    30. Re:Bad for Who? by Tom_Yardley · · Score: 1

      But, content filtering programs don't work. And who but a slashdot loving techno nerd can out hack a teenaged boy hot on the trail of porn?

    31. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Umm not the AG but there are laws prohibiting what Fedex can send and they do have to block packages that have $WHATEVER material is illegal :-).

    32. Re:Bad for Who? by error0x100 · · Score: 1

      He didn't say its funny, you've misunderstood his post. Go read it again, carefully this time. Read it a few times if necessary.

    33. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      You are ASSUMING it is just child pornography that is being blocked.

      How do you know? What if some site showing the current Governor of Pennsylvania's wife in a "compromising" position is also blocked?
      Or what if some site showing the current Governor of Pennsylvania in a compromising position with a child is blocked?
    34. Re:Bad for Who? by TarPitt · · Score: 1

      This is an excellent point. The blocking products I am aware of all block based on IP address. No way to selectively block URLs. In the process of blocking bad stuff you will always end up blocking stuff that is innocuous, that happens to be hosted at the same web site. This would hold doubly for an ISP. The only practical way for an ISP to block traffic is by IP address.

      --
      If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep
    35. Re:Bad for Who? by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Furthermore, they argue that by allowing existing child pornography to be obtained, even though it causes no further harm to the child, it encourages the phedophile to think about his problem even more, and ultimately, will result in more sexual child abuse.

      I know you're just summarizing key points, but don't forget that those photos are of people who are still alive and/or have families. I think it could be easily argued that the act of distributing this stuff continues to victimize the survivor, even if no money changes hands, no other children are touched etc.

      But your sentiment seems to be that this whole thing is a savage witch hunt... which I agree with.

      If they really want to stop child pornography and child abuse, they should have a two-sided message. The other side being "if you have a problem..." But everyone seems to be more interested in projecting their hatred... It is socially encouraged to demand that pedophiles be dragged through the streets by their testicles, flayed to the bone, drawn, quartered then set on fire.

      (Pause for cheers from the peanut gallery)

      As it is now, the severe punishments and public shaming means that for a pedophile, it is in their best interest to beat or threaten a child into silence, or to kill them.

      (Pause for morbid silence)

      It's a sad and screwed up situation.

    36. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, it is bad for Who. Especially that Townsend guy.

    37. Re:Bad for Who? by Lord+Sauron · · Score: 1

      >How does the AG shut down foreign sites? Iraqi child porn sites are obviously in jeopardy, but beyond that I'm not sure the AG has much power...

      Why do you think the US are invading Iraq ?

    38. Re:Bad for Who? by arkanes · · Score: 1
      Just as a heads up, you can be arrested and convicted for possessing fake kiddy porn as well - both computer generated drawings or textual fantasies. Ohio is one state I'm certain of, I'm not sure about others. The supreme court case was for a federal law.

      As for you arguments, you summarize well, but I don't think anyone misunderstands them. I think alot of people understand them fine, and realize that they're hopelessly naive.

    39. Re:Bad for Who? by Reziac · · Score: 1

      To demonstrate its absurdity, shift the same scenario to a library setting:

      "Books on this list are banned."
      "Why are they banned?"
      "I dunno, we're not allowed to read them."

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    40. Re:Bad for Who? by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      You are ASSUMING it is just child pornography that is being blocked.

      Umm, because it is...

      "the Attorney General of Pennsylvania has ordered all PA ISPs to block sites that have child porn."

      How do you know? What if some site showing the current Governor of Pennsylvania's wife in a "compromising" position is also blocked?

      Then the submission would have read "the Attorney General of Pennsylvania has ordered all PA ISPs to block sites that have the current Governor of Pennsylvania's wife in a 'compromising' position."

    41. Re:Bad for Who? by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      I could be wrong, but I think the difference is if you send something illegal through the mail, you get charged with a crime, not the USPS, post office, or mail carriers involved. So applied to this situation, the ISP is innocent and the content providers are guilty.

      It depends. If the mail carrier knows that you are sending something illegal through the mail, then they are guilty too.

    42. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By going after the ISPs and not the pornographers, you're guaranteeing they will just spring up somewhere else and won't fear the law.

      By going after pornographers and not ISPs, you're guaranteeing they will just spring up in other countries and won't fear the law.

      Only by going after pornographers and those who profit off pornography do you have any chance of actually stopping it.

    43. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think that stopping that kind of access is a good thing and It should be done in every state!

    44. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if some site showing the current Governor of Pennsylvania's wife in a "compromising" position is also blocked?

      Have you seen her? You'd thank them!
      [shivers]

    45. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bravo AC! You said what we all should be thinking.

    46. Re:Bad for Who? by a+hollow+voice · · Score: 1
      Good point. I think the ISPs generally use the same argument here that the USPS uses - that the amount of material they carry makes it logistically impossible to know what they're carrying.

      The people who try to enforce blocking lists think that it solves this problem, since they tell you exactly what you're not supposed to carry, but they apparently don't realize that their list of inappropriate/illegal sites is out of date in a very short time, so it doesn't solve anything unless it's constantly verified and updated.

    47. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh yeah? I bet ten years ago you would have said that banning child porn would never lead to legitimate material being banned also. But here we are, with legitimate web sites being banned as a result of trying to ban child porn. Or that trying to ban child porn wouldn't result in legitimate art being banned, but here we are with 'virtual' child porn threatening to make certain art and movies illegal.

      This is the slippery slope.

      Oh, and you might be interested to know that in Britain it is illegal to carry or own a toothpick.... If you intend to use it for self defense, or actually do.

    48. Re:Bad for Who? by jasonditz · · Score: 1

      In many American states the police have discretion to arrest someone for carrying a toothpick or seize that toothpick if they feel it is being carried with intent to use it as a weapon and in a concealed manner. Again, its not even about what you really intend to do, just what the cop figures you intend to do.

      In other words, if you keep a toothpick in your pocket you'd damned well better have some corn nearby.

      The slippery slope argument isn't legitimate in and of itself, but when you've got a system of government that will use any precident to take away any remotely similar rights, there's something to be said for it.

      FWIW its already illegal to report about something the government considers harmful under the Patriot act, because if it intimidates someone to hear it then the reporting itself is a terrorist action.

    49. Re:Bad for Who? by vsprintf · · Score: 1

      There should be a -1 Gullible moderation category.

    50. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      "There should be a -1 Gullible moderation category."

      Aww... come on, be nice to the guy.
      In this day and age, I think it's sweet that there's still someone who believes that public officials are honest, infallible, un-corruptable, do not abuse or seek to abuse their power for their own personal agendas, love us, care about us, wish to only protect us, want only the best for us...

      ...um... ok, the poster is obviously one seriously retarded individual.

    51. Re:Bad for Who? by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      Why... Are you saying that a judge and jury are going to agree to this?

    52. Re:Bad for Who? by nick+this · · Score: 1
      I think you misunderstand the purpose of blocking access to child pornography.

      Perhaps I do. Your argument is that child pornography is bad. For several reasons, including that the mere viewing of it may (or may not) be a causal factor in child abuse. Perhaps this is an oversimlification of your argument, but that is what it essentially boils down to.

      So stipulated. I understand the objections to child pornography, and I understand the though process that would produce this sort of legislation. In some sense, I agree with the objective of the measure.

      Unfortunately, it's the case of the right thing for the wrong reason. If making child pornography is illegal, and people continue to break the law anyway, why would one imagine that *more* legislation can fix the problem? The problem is fundamentally a social problem. Social problems *cannot* be solved by legislation. They are ultimately doomed to failure.

      Another problem is that while this sort of legislation might hide the underlying problem, it attacks only the symptoms, not the root of the problem. So not only will it ultimately fail, it won't even help make the problem go away. This is nothing more than eyewash. This kind of legislation does nothing but make some constituents happy without actually accomplishing much. And that at the expense of making the government a moral judge. Bad idea.

      And third, let's just use some common sense. If you know where the child pornography web sites are, shut them down! Proceed with legal action against them. Don't just ignore them and hope they go away.

      So what I see is a dangerous increase in the government's powers, without any kind of commensurate benefit. That's not good government. That's foolish.

    53. Re:Bad for Who? by geekee · · Score: 1

      What's your point? I don't think it's legal for Fedex to knowingly ship illegal drug, weapons, etc. How's this any different?

      --
      Vote for Pedro
    54. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree with your assessment of why folks find it repulsive, except I think you overlook a very important and relevant point.

      Who decides the line of child? To bring up a flagrantly volatile area for the purpose of making my point, not surprisingly, most people dislike the idea, not to mention the act of abortion. But outside of the extremists, what side of the abortion debate is frequently decided by this vaporous concept of when the abortion may take place, which turns the argument into an all or nothing issue.

      "There are two reasons why child pornography is considered absolutely horrific by people:"

      True, even on the *absolutely* horrific part. Nearly everyone has drawn a line of what is certainly, unquestionably wrong. To them. BUT if you ask these people as a whole their definition of child pornography and where it intersects absolutely horrific, you're going to get a huge range of answers. People have different levels of "that's utterly sick" even to such a point of "well, why exactly is this punishment THAT bad?"

      Take females: Prepubescent photos of sexual acts? Repulsive. Menarche? Yup, repulsive. 14 years old? Waver. A hot, ripe 16 year old? More wavering. Go by the legal definition of adult? More wavering--what if they look 21? 24? Ever see a 24 yo look like a 14 yo? Vice versa?

      You can't tell that from a photo. Much less real life sometimes. What about "appropriate uses"? You get into a DMCA like use of "academic research"--now only nurses and MDs can learn about certain things? Professional exclusion, now intent because relevant and you just directed the industry towards a sicker (literally and absolutely) subset. As some folks inaccurately (but it was a good example) sought to portray about the virtual child porn law, the implied sex in the movie _Titanic_ might (it didn't according to the letter of that law) have been illegal (they were, assumed, minors steaming up those windows).

      Look beyond speech--first, in actual physical cases, such as statuatory rape, as much as I agree with the *intent* of the letter of the law, I don't agree with the punishments and I think the law should have a moving age window. As it stands now, most prom night nether region fluid exchanges are technically illegal. Get caught or a parent complains, you are considered a violent offender under a 1984 law (Bail Reform Law, I think), which in some states slaps you as a pedophile and under Megan's law.

      Second, look at even our country's history. Less than 100 years ago, 15 yo brides were commonplace. Not that this is appropriate or right in today's modern society, but it wasn't considered pedophilia or of incorrect mind or mental state. A legal line is not the same as a mental and physical evaluation of the prospective victim.

      To sum this up, most people will raise their hands to attest that they think that pedophilia is horrific. Stating unequivocably the definition of child *for the purposes of the law that is acceptable to all those agreeing with the law*, well, lookout.

    55. Re:Bad for Who? by Alsee · · Score: 1

      If the host refuses to remove the content, then its sort of their choice.

      (1) If the host is not in Pennsylvania then why should the host remove the content? For all I know Pennsylvania wants to block slashdot.
      (2) I wasn't reffering the host, I was reffering to the people with perfectly acceptable webpages on that host. I guess you'll blame them for using a host that carries an "objectionable" page, but as I said the "site" can have tens of thousands of webpages. There's absolutely no way someone could look at them all before deciding to use the host.

      Then again, a look at my analog reports showing most used search querys

      I'm not quite sure what you're saying, are you pointing out that your "bland" site could wind up on the blocked list? And thereby also get everyone else on your host blocked?

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    56. Re:Bad for Who? by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 1

      "(1) If the host is not in Pennsylvania then why should the host remove the content? For all I know Pennsylvania wants to block slashdot.
      "
      Because they want visitors from pennsylvania. Its sort of like Germany asking yahoo to remove nazi content. They have no reason to, But by refusing theyre cutting off visitors.

      I'm not quite sure what you're saying, are you pointing out that your "bland" site could wind up on the blocked list? And thereby also get everyone else on your host blocked?

      -"
      yes, which is why I dont agree with them not showing what exactly theyre blocking.

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
    57. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget though that the Supreme Court ruled a long time ago that case law striking down federal laws can be applied to similar state laws if such laws were not struck down because of enumeration of powers clauses. (I don't remember the case where that happened but the reasoning was that federal law supercedes state law and that case law is no different and then the Constitutional enumeration of powers thing was thrown because it's in Constitution (along with the Supremacy Clause))

      So Ohio can't use that law for prosecution (and win) because it was esentially already struck down.

    58. Re:Bad for Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Now, legally and constitutionally, the government cannot play thought police. You're allowed to think of gross things all day, as long as you don't hurt anyone with them. So, if someone sits around jacking off to thoughts of children, its gross, but you can't stop it."

      Ha Ha Ha - actually - this is a *physical* limitation based on the current lack of mind-reading technology and is hardly related to "American Freedom". Even Soviet Russia couldn't litterally control thoughts, only actions which indicated thoughts.

      This certainly shows what a piss-poor idea many folks have of what constitutes Freedom.

    59. Re:Bad for Who? by vsprintf · · Score: 1

      See the other reply to my comment. I can't top that, although I think he was a bit harsh. :)

  3. Penn seems to be the leader in regulating ISPs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    1. Re:Penn seems to be the leader in regulating ISPs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Oh BTW, Pajonet's Hot or Not News Site has been totally redone
      I think you misspelled "Slashdotted" there...
  4. Get 'em by mnassri · · Score: 3, Funny

    You'd think they could just publish the list on the net, so every s. kiddie could try to take it down with their mad skills...

    Alternately, just publish the list on /. - I bet the sites would never be back up.

    -Maher-

    1. Re:Get 'em by threephaseboy · · Score: 1

      Alternately, just publish the list on /. - I bet the sites would never be back up.

      What are you suggesting about slashdotters' habits??
      --
      .
    2. Re:Get 'em by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ewww....not the kind of porn I am into. Give me adult lesbians with a penchant for latex and spanking, and you can count me in on that /.ing. :-)

    3. Re:Get 'em by shadowbearer · · Score: 1

      and the cry goes out....

      MELT THEIR SERVERS!

      It'd serve them right......poetic justice.

      Sigh. Censorship sucks. Why the hell! are so many politicians so clueless these days? After 10 years of the internet you would think they would be educated by now...but no....

      SB

      --
      It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
  5. well... by iosmart · · Score: 1

    if they told residents, that'd just make people want to go to sites just so they could say "ha-ha-ha, look at me, i got around the law!!! w00t?". maybe by proxy or just traveling outside of the state...but by not telling the people, they can only find out what's blocked by actually looking for child pornography - how low is that? the majority of people would simply not bother with the whole thing and continue their lives.

    1. Re:well... by be-fan · · Score: 1

      A major point of child pornography (and underage sex laws in general) to prevent the emotional damage that results from sex. Of course I'm being a little facetious in bring up Britney spears, Of course I realize the difference between her and a child, but I'd argue that at 15, when she was swept into the whole music biz, she wasn't emotionally developed enough to handle it.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    2. Re:well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
      there is a vast and great difference between child porn, the majority of which feature children and pre-teens, and teenage girls.
      Do you have some sort of reference for the suggestion that the "majority" of child porn features children and pre-teens? As the laws define it (at least in the US), porn involving anyone under 18 is child porn. A porno movie filmed the day before the "star" turned 18 is just as illegal as a porno filmed when the "star" is 6 years old, though I would imagine most people would find the former far less repugnant than the latter.

      Makes no difference, though; the pornos depicting 17 year olds are counted among the numbers when the gov't is spreading hysteria about child porn. You see a report on TV every now and then about how so-and-so was arrested for child porn, and that the cops found "2,000 images" on his computer. What you never hear is how many of those 2,000 images were of 17 year olds, versus how many were of 6 year olds. Or even how many were child porn to start with! The GAO and Customs recently conducted a study of "child porn" on filesharing networks, and found that out of 1286 suspected child porn images, only 149 were actually illegal. But that doesn't stop people from being up in arms about "how much" child porn is all over those evil p2p networks.
      biologically, teenage girls are sexually attractive.
      And, biologically, children are sexually attractive to some people. I don't think biology is the answer, I think it's the problem. People are different, they have different wants, different needs, and different tastes. From a lawmaking point of view, that's an obstacle.

      The parent brings up a good point, we as a society run around decrying child porn, and passing law after law supposedly trying to stop it, but typically only serving to pull the wool over peoples' eyes. The PA law is a great example of this, it doesn't do anything to combat child porn, it's as if the entire state is just supposed to pretend those sites don't exist. Yet we parade underage girls around on TV, magazine covers, movies, etc. in skimpy clothing all the time. I remember when I was in my teens Jennifer Love Hewitt was in bikinis all the time on episodes of "Byrds of Paradise" (it was a network TV show). She was probably 13 or 14 at the time, showing a ton of skin, the only reason they were doing that was to get ratings.

      Both child porn and the latest teeny pop starlet's slutty wardrobe are made with prurient interest in mind - to turn on, arouse, and attract sales/viewers - yet one is illegal, the other is not only legal it's flaunted everywhere. It is indeed kind of weird when you think about it. A lot like the idea that sex is taboo yet violence is A-OK. Us Americans are a weird breed.
    3. Re:well... by arkanes · · Score: 1

      Just to clear something up: Biologically speaking, it's normal for people to be attracted to sexually mature or maturing members of the opposite sex. Age is not a factor. It's sexual maturity (or, in some cases, the appearance of maturity, look at J-Lo's kid fashions some time), that makes the decision. The vast majority of sexually mature males will be titillated by your typically dressed high school girl of today. Socially adjusted males past a certain age will self-censor those feelings, but they'll still be there by reflex. Appealing to that desire is why the slutty teen diva is so popular.

  6. Maybe they don't *have* a list? by dspeyer · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I realize this is a hideously Orwellian (Heelerian?) Catch-22, but it could be pure incompitance. When the ruling first appeared, many here questioned how such a law might be enforced when surely any ISP discovering child porn should report it to police so the server can be taken down.

    It seems likely to me that they simply don't have a list, and they want to make it the ISP's problems. The best law enforcement agencies in the country can't stop kiddy-porn rings, so let's see if overworked sysadmins can! If it fails, at least we'll be able to pass the blame...

    I think ISPs should simply declare that, to the best of their knowledge, there is no kiddy porn on the web, and only block things if they get complaints (then report the complainant as having viewed kiddy-porn.)

    1. Re:Maybe they don't *have* a list? by lalas · · Score: 1
      If I had mod points......



      I think you're right on the money... this is a way to pass the buck to the ISPs

    2. Re:Maybe they don't *have* a list? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder how many of these may contain "anti-war" information. It seems there is a concerted effort to block any information from leaking into America that could be considered remotely "anti-American" by the Bush Administration.

    3. Re:Maybe they don't *have* a list? by connsmythe96 · · Score: 1

      Report the complainant?? I think if someone reported it then they problem didn't go looking for it. If you punish people who report it then no one will ever report it and the sites won't get taken down (no one will know about them but the people who want them there). So why get them in trouble?

      --
      if(!cool) exit(-1);
    4. Re:Maybe they don't *have* a list? by JJahn · · Score: 1

      *sigh*, whether you like Bush or not does not mean you should just blame him for everything evil in the world. This is the STATE of Pennsylvania, not the US government. Although as mentioned the US gov. can shut down kiddie porn sites (and if you disagree with that you are a sick person)

    5. Re:Maybe they don't *have* a list? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Joseph Heller wrote "Catch-22". Otherwise, don't capitalize it. /lit fag

    6. Re:Maybe they don't *have* a list? by Alsee · · Score: 1

      Report the complainant?? I think if someone reported it then they problem didn't go looking for it. If you punish people who report it then no one will ever report it and the sites won't get taken down (no one will know about them but the people who want them there). So why get them in trouble?

      LOL. I suggest you work on getting the law changed then. According to current law you are GUILTY if it's on your computer. Even if you weren't looking for it. Even if you delete it. Even if you report it. It would probably be illegal NOT to report you for reporting it.

      The law has to be that way - we need to protect the children. Chuckle.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    7. Re:Maybe they don't *have* a list? by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      I believe the original poster was pointing out some of the flaws in our current underage porn laws.

    8. Re:Maybe they don't *have* a list? by Danse · · Score: 1

      Although as mentioned the US gov. can shut down kiddie porn sites

      Although, like he said, if they can shut them down, why do they need a list?

      --
      It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
    9. Re:Maybe they don't *have* a list? by Galvatron · · Score: 1
      There's certainly precedent. McCarthy did the same thing, he'd wave a blank piece of paper around, saying it had the names of 100 (or whatever) Communists working in the government.

      Here's my question: if viewing child porn is illegal, how do they find these sites? How closely do they monitor those people to make sure they're not child porn addicts who have found a very clever way to circumvent the system?

      --
      "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
    10. Re:Maybe they don't *have* a list? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      /lit fag

      That's for damn sure. Go back to chugging cock, I'm sure you're better at that than you are trolling.

  7. Re:help! my nutzors itch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    blame it on bush.

  8. Nerd!! You thought you knew everything? Wake up !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are a nerd, right ?
    Does that mean you know more than the rest ? Think so...??
    Check your facts cause this means that you haven't read this on Sean-Pauls Bulletinboard:

    What they don't want you to know !!

    (Read the link on Project for the New American Century)

  9. why not shut em down? by jest3r · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If all of these sites actually contain child porn why not focus all efforts on getting them shut down completely .. having a few ISP's block these websites accomplishes nothing ..

    1. Re:why not shut em down? by DeepRedux · · Score: 1

      Most likely, these sites are not in Pennsylvania or even in the US. How would Pennsylvania shut down a site outside of the US?

    2. Re:why not shut em down? by v_1_r_u_5 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So here's how the game is played: someone notifies the authorities about a child porn site. Several days (weeks) go by before the claim is looked into. Several more days pass by until the site is eventually shut down.

      In the mean time, ISP's can act on their own accord by blocking access to known child porn sites. This is a good thing (TM).

    3. Re:why not shut em down? by joejoejoejoe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      B/C PA needs an open ended way to attack anyone they feel like attacking.

      in other words, yeah, exactly, if they had a target to pin the bulls-eye on, they would, so instead they blame the guys proiding access (can you say newsgroups?).

      Kiddie porn is bad. If the government know where it is, it should be THEIR job to stop the spread of it, not some ISP.

      What if the site is via a membership. Should every ISP join EVERY site that their members (who get only access to the Internet) join, so they can validate the legality of the site? And if they get it wrong, because they dont have the forensics to get it right, are they still responsible? and is this even a viable way to do it? NO IT IS NOT. Merely viewing child porn is a crime, even if you are trying to find it, to block it. It is the classic chicken and the egg (catch-22): To find it, you need to view it. To ban it you need to find it. To block it you need to find it. So to block it, you need to view it, which is against the law (UNLESS THE GOVT PROVIDES THE LIST, which the cannot???!!!...

      joe (i am drunk)

      --
      Silly Rabbit: tricks are for kids.
    4. Re:why not shut em down? by sheddd · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Kiddie porn is bad

      Define kiddie porn, please; beauty pageants for preteens give me a much ickier feeling than watching a 17 year old screw a guy. Who should be the judge of what's indecent? Or illegal?

    5. Re:why not shut em down? by connsmythe96 · · Score: 1

      That's exactly why this is wrong. If this is done for child-pornography, then eventually it will be extended to other things that the government might want to censor

      --
      if(!cool) exit(-1);
    6. Re:why not shut em down? by linzeal · · Score: 1

      We need to find the people that rape children with our supa-keen hacker prowess and kill them. That would solve more problems than prosecuting people peddling child porn, let's hunt down and liberate the children that are being exploited.

    7. Re:why not shut em down? by sheddd · · Score: 1

      Agreed; self censoring is the best awnser IMO (though I cringe when I imagine what grandma sees when she's using the new pc I got her).

    8. Re:why not shut em down? by Alsee · · Score: 0

      beauty pageants for preteens give me a much ickier feeling than watching a 17 year old screw a guy.

      Umm, is that 17 year old male or female? LOL

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    9. Re:why not shut em down? by unitron · · Score: 1
      By all means let's not bother with any of that due process of law or burden of proof or guilty beyond all reasonable doubt stuff.

      All those in favor of mob rule, lynch the next guy I point to!

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    10. Re:why not shut em down? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pennsylvania couldn't... But the US gov't could. How? Glad you asked. Bombs. Big fucking bombs.

    11. Re:why not shut em down? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Umm, is that 17 year old male or female? LOL

      Whatever works for you.

    12. Re:why not shut em down? by parliboy · · Score: 1

      I disagree. In that context, blocking an illegal website in preparation for shutting it down is analogous to sending a letter to your neighborhood crack dealer saying, "You might want to find a new corner. We're thinking of raiding you." It just makes it harder to make an arrest.

      --
      "You're never ready, just less unprepared."
    13. Re:why not shut em down? by error0x100 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      beauty pageants for preteens give me a much ickier feeling

      Urgh, yes. Was watching a TV show about one the other day, and some adults were talking about "how beautiful some of these girls are", "how important it is to be beautiful", and were saying things like that "that one has such beautiful legs" and "what a nice body that one has" etc. It was kind of creepy and kind of sad. These girls were no older than 10 or 11, and were trying so hard to behave grown-up. The adults 'dressing up the girls in pretty dresses' and cooing over them reminded me precisely of young girls dressing up dolls in 'pretty dresses'.

    14. Re:why not shut em down? by GigsVT · · Score: 1

      And the same arguments apply. The arguments against underage porn generally go along the lines of "these kids are being put into situations that they are not capable of consenting to, and the resulting pictures/media could harm them later in life". Or someone might argue psychological consequences.

      Someone who participates in these child beauty contests may regret it later in life, have serious psychological consequences, and the demeaning pictures of them will be floating around for years. How is that different?

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  10. They're right you know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Under current regulations they can't do this. There isn't really any harm done either as long as when sites on this list can't be reached a page is returned to the user saying the site has been blocked because it's on this list. That way if a legitimate site is blocked, everyone will know why and be able to appeal its inclusion on the list. Seems fine to me.

    1. Re:They're right you know by aoeuid · · Score: 1

      That way if a legitimate site is blocked, everyone will know why and be able to appeal its inclusion on the list. Seems fine to me.

      And who is going to stand up publicly and declare they are upset because they can't get to a site listed on the kiddie porn list?

    2. Re:They're right you know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What makes you think they'd need to stand up and declare it? If it hasn't already been thought of, it won't be long before it occurs to PA to request that their ISP's log attempts to reach the blocked sites.... This would probably be equivalent to a wiretap, but what judge would risk being tagged as a kiddie-pr0n supporter by denying the wiretap?

  11. Re:Blocking Child Porn? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, the problem with an open society is having to deal with things you may not like. I can trust them to use this list honestly (I don't think they'd blacklist a site that doesn't qualify as child porn), but if we're pretending to be an open society, we ought to act like it.

    Fact is, people who look at child porn already have their hookup, they don't need a list to figure out where to go. (ie, USENET)

    Open up the damn list so the paranoid people can judge for themselves, and so we're not hypocritical when we pretend that we're better than police states like China in this regard.

  12. CDT Calls Penn Blocking Law Unconstitutional by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The CDT report - entitled "The Pennsylvania ISP Liability Law: An Unconstitutional Prior Restraint and a Threat to the Stability of the Internet" - analyzes a 2002 Pennsylvania law that forces ISPs to block access to any web site deemed "child pornography" without notice to the site's publisher and without any opportunity to challenge the determination. ISPs are required to block the sites even if they do not host the content and have no relationship whatsoever with the publishers of the content. The Pennsylvania Attorney General has since gone even further, bypassing the law's inadequate court procedures to simply demand by letter that sites be blocked.

    CDT.org

    More News

    1. Re:CDT Calls Penn Blocking Law Unconstitutional by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Passed in early 2002, the Pennsylvania ISP Liability Law imposes potential liability on ISPs for child pornography available on the Internet, even if the ISPs are not hosting the offending content and have no relationship whatsoever with the publishers of the content. Essentially, the law makes any ISP doing business in Pennsylvania potentially liable for content anywhere on the Internet.

      More News

    2. Re:CDT Calls Penn Blocking Law Unconstitutional by danoatvulaw · · Score: 1

      They can argue prior restraint all they feel like, and in some cases, it may be true. However, they completely miss the fact that child pornography is entitled to exactly 0 Constitutional protection. None. Also, prior restraint necessarially implies that the government is trying to stop the speech before it happens - here the site is already up and running! danoatvulaw note that I have not read their report, but based on your summation, they dont have a leg to stand on.

  13. How often is this list updated? by joshlax · · Score: 3, Informative
    To quote the article:

    Fisher has so far instructed Internet providers with customers in the state to block subscribers from at least 423 Web sites around the world.

    First, I find it hard to believe that there are only 423 web sites that offer kiddie porn, based soley on the amount of spam I get advertizing it. And in what way is this list updated? Porn sites move around constantly, and use any number of tricks to fool browsers (fake.site.com@real.site.com tricks, IP addresses instead of host names, etc.) so I think this list must be changing every few minutes. Do they reall y have someone sitting and watching as the porn sites get a new IP address?

    I'm not saying anything for or against the block itself, I'm just saying this must be one hell of a headache to manange.

    1. Re:How often is this list updated? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm just saying this must be one hell of a headache to manange.

      It probably won't be managed very actively. That is how it is possible.

    2. Re:How often is this list updated? by rmgrotkierii · · Score: 1

      It's updated once Mike Fisher is finished with the said site(s). ;-)

      --
      Reality is for those who can't face Science Fiction.
    3. Re:How often is this list updated? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You get spam advertising kiddie porn? You must've visited some questionable sites to get on those lists!

      I sometimes get spam advertising porn featuring barely legal teens, which is legal and has nothing to do with kiddie porn, which is not.

      Don't confuse legal porn with illegal porn. That's what much of the hysteria is probably caused by.

    4. Re:How often is this list updated? by Agent+Green · · Score: 2, Informative

      The number of sites on that list is actually less than 423. At least for the ISP I work for, they have to supply the URL and the IP address...and we block by IP.

      The unfortunate side effect is that blocking by IP permeates over the whole backbone, effectively shutting everyone out from our network and anyone else who uses us for transit...regardless if they live in PA or not.

      Also, once each request is made, that's it...we don't keep tabs on it...especially since they don't pay us for that kind of service. In short, it's their responsiblity to provide us the information for continued enforcement.

      --
      // Agent Green (Ian / IU7 / KB1JQO)
      // IEEE 802.3: All 10base Are Belong To Us
    5. Re:How often is this list updated? by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 1
      The number of sites on that list is actually less than 423. At least for the ISP I work for, they have to supply the URL and the IP address...and we block by IP.
      Why don't you e-mail me the list they gave you, and I'll post it on a website far from the reach of Pennsylvania law???
  14. OK, to explain why it's a bad thing... by clambake · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...if you don't get to look at the list, how do you know it's not being abused? How do you know that they are all child porn sites, and not, for example, pro-choice advocate sites, or whatever the reviewer decides is against his personal beliefs?

    If I was in charge of the list, and I knew that it would never be seen by anyone but me and my cronies, then I've got a really big stick to wave around the heads of those people I don't agree with. Child porn is bad, but the potential to lose some bit of freedom is worse. Eventually those kids grow up and either adjust or they don't, but lost freedoms are usually gone forever and they affect everybody in the country. There is no bigger superpower than us that can come and bail us out if our govt becomes a totolitarian regime, so we have to defend our liberty at all cost while we have the chance.

    1. Re:OK, to explain why it's a bad thing... by Brushfireb · · Score: 0

      I agree with you, completely, except for one minor point.

      "There is no bigger superpower than us that can come and bail us out if our govt becomes a totolitarian regime, so we have to defend our liberty at all cost while we have the chance."

      All iraq comments aside, that is actually a good thing. Liberty works a gazillion times better when the society creates it from within, as opposed to having it installed by another country.

      Think of it like installing your first linux distro. If someone does it for you, sure, you have a (hopefully) working linux box, but you didnt work for it as hard, so you didnt LEARN as much in the process, so you wont value it as much, and will probably soon switch back to the crap you had before (even if that crap was an awful and ineffective POS), just becuase its what you know.

      Brushfireb

  15. Where do you draw the line? by b3h · · Score: 1

    I don't like the implications this will have for the future. If the government decides to censor some websites, what's to stop them from restricting access to others?

    1. Re:Where do you draw the line? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's too late now.

      One state's doing it, how many more will follow? Does it even matter anymore? Are all these providers really going to maintain an ever-changing list of IPs for people in this state alone, or are they gonna go the easy way and just block for everyone else?

      Soon America will be known as Australica. As everyone already knows of Australia's widespread censorship. :P

      What freedom?

      But just remember, Jeff Goldblum is watching you poop! http://www.geocities.com/jeffgoldblumiswatchingyou poop/

  16. feel-good laws! by justin_speers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why do laws like this, which are completely impossible to force and redundant (possession of child porn is ALREADY illegal, why force ISPs to filter it?) manage to get passed?

    Because who the hell expects to get any votes after voting against a child-porn law?

    They only get away with stupid laws like this because most people don't look past the title, so we get things like "The Patriot Act"...

    1. Re:feel-good laws! by stratjakt · · Score: 1

      >(possession of child porn is ALREADY illegal, why force ISPs to filter it?)

      Not only is posession illegal, it's illegal to knowingly facilitate the distribution of child porn. This absolves the local ISP of liability.

      Here's some more terrible affronts to your liberties. US Customs siezes tons of this shit each and every day. It's destroyed, and they dont publish a list of who sent it.

      Of course, they cant prove that the address it was being sent to actually ordered it (and even if they did, they knew what it was), so they cant just lock them up. But you better believe their name shows up the next time a traffic cop pulls them over and runs an NCIC check.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  17. Operation Pipe Dreams by justin_speers · · Score: 2, Insightful
    1. Re:Operation Pipe Dreams by Redwing · · Score: 1

      OMG! Thanks for that link! I love this quote:

      "People selling drug paraphernalia are in essence no different than drug dealers," said John Brown, Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "They are as much a part of drug trafficking, as silencers are a part of criminal homicide. "

      If we could only get supporters of the DEA and the NRA together on this,... Oh wait- they're the same people!

      --
      Raisinettes are my raison d'etre
  18. Umm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So how exactly does the state tell the ISPs which sites to block without such 'disseminiation'?

    1. Re:Umm... by Cl1mh4224rd · · Score: 1

      They take over the ISPs...

      --
      People will pass up steak once a week, for crap every day.
  19. Wha...? by Erik+Fish · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sounds like he's just passing the buck. Last time I checked it was the legal system's job to enforce laws -- not some private company that provides internet access. Not that this exactly qualifies as law enforcement since the sites are still out there -- they're just kinda-sorta-maybe blocked in PA (motto: "Yet Another Hillbilly State").

    Were all the internet child porn cases coming through his court cutting into his golf time? Did someone forget to give him the memo that would have clued him in to the fact that a lot of this shit is hosted by the russian mafia and isn't exactly a stationary target because (suprise!) even people on the internet hate kiddie porn?

  20. Poetry to fight spam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  21. Re:Figures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You lived in the "capitol"? Funny, I thought they'd only have office space in that building...

  22. There's a reason they don't... by C0LDFusion · · Score: 1

    ...and it's not a good one. It's the same reason most school systems who do their own in-house filtering through stuff like BorderAlert and such. Given the percentage of the internet that is pornography, a large percentage of blocked sites are blocked for political reasons. At my old high school, they blocked socialistworker.org and other "seditious" websites.

    It took some checking to see what sites were blocked, and much question asking and nosing around before they were unblocked. Apparently, some people in the school system decided on their own to block sites.

    I think there could be something similar here. They may be wanting to prohibit access to non-porn political sites that don't support the war, or are Anti-Penn (I myself think that state sucks ass for a variety of reasons).

    While I myself do not like sites like socialistworker.org (see my journal for explanation), I'd like to see the rights of others protected, and this is yet another excuse to hide government activity against freedom of speech.

    --
    Only in slashdot are posts of solidarity modded at -1 Redundant, while posts of antagonism are modded as -1 Flamebait.
    1. Re:There's a reason they don't... by stratjakt · · Score: 1

      Ummm. no.

      The reason they dont is they dont want to abet pedophiles indirectly. They dont want the perverts along the border signing up with a MD ISP and leeching their fancy new list of filth.

      It's not a slippery slope, its not about politics or ideologies. What your high school does is outside of this legislation, and up to the local districts. If someone found themself blocked, they have a recourse. They can bitch, go public, whatever, start a big scene here on slashdot.

      If nazi-kkk-hatesite.com was blocked by this, I'd go as far as to defend their right to say what they want. Because that isn't illegal. Child pornography is.

      If you dont see the difference between socialistworker.org and a child pornography site, you need to give your head a shake. Some things really are black and white.

      Myself, I think they should disclose the list, but not for any of the reasons slashbots do. We have Megans Law which forces information about sex offenders to be made public to the communities they're released into. By extension, I want the list to add to my own firewall.

      Child pornography is not "protected speech" by any means. It's a felony.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    2. Re:There's a reason they don't... by C0LDFusion · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The thing someone has to learn is that when government does anything that is a bit unusual or secretive, no matter how small, it's usually a test. Parents with kids understand it. Kids test you to see how much shit you're willing to take. Similarly, government likes to see how much shit you're willing to take. Once they see most people are cool with keeping something secret as long as they attach child porn to it, they'll start doing other things.

      Yeah, sure, you'll say again, no slippery slope. And of course, to make that position, you'll ignore all of U.S. History from the late 1700's to today.

      --
      Only in slashdot are posts of solidarity modded at -1 Redundant, while posts of antagonism are modded as -1 Flamebait.
    3. Re:There's a reason they don't... by joto · · Score: 1
      If you dont see the difference between socialistworker.org and a child pornography site, you need to give your head a shake. Some things really are black and white.

      No, they aren't. It would not be too terrible if socialistworker.org posted "and here are some pictures to clarify why we are against child-pornography...". Just like they could say "and here are some pictures to explain why we are against war in Iraq..." (and do). Of course, the former is illegal under current law, and they will not do it.

      But if I posted a link to kiddyporn.com (assuming such a site existed, and contained child porn, which I suppose is not the case), then the state of PA could block slashdot. In that case, I am sure slashdot editors would be more than happy to filter my post, but that is not really the point, is it?

      To further explain why things are not black and white. Please tell me, how you can simply look at a picture and tell me whether someone is under-age. Sure, there are ways of telling in the extreme case (Another example. I've downloaded a lot of porn from kazaa. Now, as it happens, a lot of that porn has filenames like xxx-lolita-10yo-groupfuck.jpg, or something similar (even though that wasn't what I searched for, but I rarely check the filename). Would it be illegal to watch that movie? No, of course not, it is a clip from a well-known porn movie, using actors in their thirties, not 10 year old children.

      Should we block kazaa then, because it gives the impression of distributing child porn? Surely, I have never found anything that should be classified as child porn, although I must admit that once I stumbled upon something that easily could be confused with it.

      But all this is getting away from the real point. The problem is not that we can't see the difference between child porn, and what not else. The problem is that we have to trust someone else, with their own (possibly hidden) agendas to do that for us. And no-one can check that decision. It doesn't really matter if I can see the difference, what matters is that it's illegal for me (or you) to check that the sensors are doing the right thing. And not just in PA, it would be illegal to check it from anywhere in the world!

  23. PA ISPs to block sites that have child porn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If that's not bad enough

    Yeah that's awful.

    How are linux users in PA going to get their "FIX".

    Fucking idiots. Someone tries to crack down on child porn and all you see is "YeR rIteZ OnLYNE"

    Gawd.. Hold a dying baby in front of your faces and you'd see a mirror.. So goddamn self-absorbed.

    If someone is showing porn involving a minor, he'll be prosecuted. Failing that, he'll be blocked. And you dont need a list of URLs. It doesnt matter. You dont get a list of addresses where the sick pedophiles snail mail it from either.

    It's a crime to make, possess, or facilitate it. And it should be.

    All you idealistic high school nerds-in-training: pick your battles. You dont want to side with pedophiles and NAMBLA, trust me.

    1. Re:PA ISPs to block sites that have child porn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      If someone is showing porn involving a minor, he'll be prosecuted. Failing that, he'll be blocked. And you dont need a list of URLs.
      Let's rewrite that a bit: "If someone is making anti-neo-conservative statements, he'll be 'disappeared.' Failing that, he'll be blocked. And you don't need a list of URLs."

      Now do you see the problem? Without some independent review of the URL list, there's no way to know what the hell they're blocking.
    2. Re:PA ISPs to block sites that have child porn. by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      If someone is showing porn involving a minor, he'll be prosecuted. Failing that, he'll be blocked. And you dont need a list of URLs. It doesnt matter. You dont get a list of addresses where the sick pedophiles snail mail it from either.

      It's a crime to make, possess, or facilitate it. And it should be.


      Interesting to see that you feel that the morality of pornography changes completely upon the subject's eighteenth birthday.

    3. Re:PA ISPs to block sites that have child porn. by ewhac · · Score: 1

      If someone is showing porn involving a minor, he'll be prosecuted. Failing that, he'll be blocked.

      "Failing that?" Either they're disseminating unlawful material, or they're not. If the AG has enough evidence to arrest and prosecute, then they should arrest and prosecute, or provide their evidence to the agency that can arrest and prosecute. There is no provision for "failing that" anywhere in the process. Pawning this responsibility off onto private ISPs smacks of an inexcusable level of laziness.

      Child pornographers should be given no quarter, but there are certain rules that are to be observed, no matter how personally repugnant we may find the alleged offender(s). Yes, child pornographers should be smacked down hard -- but prove it first.

      Schwab

  24. Re:help! my nutzors itch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you been cleaning them properly? Sometimes sweat accumulates in the folds, which can lead to an itchy fungal growth. I recommend scrubbing the hell out of them... get some liquid soap and one of those lace-like scrubby things and just go to town.

    If it's severe, you can always swab your balls with rubbing alcohol. That'll kill the fungus, but it'll burn like a motherfucker, plus after you do it a couple times you'll notice some peeling, so you'll probably want to have some lotion handy.

    HTH

  25. Where is child porn legal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I am just curious. I keep hearing this argument made over and over-- the "what if the site is in a country where child porn is legal" argument, i mean. I can't think of any countries where such *IS* legal though.

    Which countries do you refer to, anyway? Are there any, or is this just a straw man?

    1. Re:Where is child porn legal? by FuzzyBad-Mofo · · Score: 1

      I guess the problem would come from one country having a lower age of consent than another. So if the age of consent is 17 years in Country A, but the age of consent is 18 years in Country B, then a porno featuring Miss 17 yrs old would be legal in A, while being kiddie porn in B. This is pure speculation btw.

    2. Re:Where is child porn legal? by FunkSoulBrother · · Score: 1

      i believe there are some countries in Europe where you can have a site full of naked 14 year olds legally. If so, then there you go.

      14 is horrible horrible kiddy porn in America.

      Furthermore, if the site is in some country where it is illegal, like Pakistan, what is the FBI to do if the Pakistani police force just doesn't have time for their crap due to more pressing problems?

    3. Re:Where is child porn legal? by Lord+Sauron · · Score: 1

      What if a 15 year old with a cam takes self pictures in Country A, hosts these pictures in country B, and downloads his/her very own pictures ?

      Gee, that'd be a mess.

      What if a 15 y-o stores self pics in the computer ? Is this a felony ?

    4. Re:Where is child porn legal? by sepluv · · Score: 0
      What if a 15 y-o stores self pics in the computer ? Is this a felony ?
      I believe it is in a crime in most countries (and one would not have to store the pictures - just take them). However, I think there are very good reasons why child porn is banned as it should be.

      I am not sure about where exactly one stands with the law of the USA. Is it online anywhere? I could not find US legislation on any goverment websites. Is the law in the USA even publicly available or is it a Goverment secret?

      Suprisingly, I did manage to find the Constitution of the USA on a goverment website at http://memory.loc.gov/const/const.html. Unfortunately, it appears from the notice, "Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public Telecomputing Network.", that it is copyrighted.

      I was going to quote from the constitution but I might be extradited to the US for copying it (because, of course, the USA now have jurisdiction over the World), so I will not. I just hope that they do not extradite me to the USA over copying the copyright notice on the Constitution. It probably doesn't matter anyway, because, now Bush rules the world, all your laws apply to me including the DMCA. This means that my vocal cords and fingers should be removed as DMCA-circumvention devices, because, if I wanted to, I could use my vocal cords to speak or my fingers to type the USA Constitution (even though I have no intention of doing so).

      [Please do not mod the this down as it is true (unlike a lot of comments) and is not meant to criticise the US people as most of us non-USAns (including myself) feel solidarity with the people of the USA who are under the dictatorship of George W. Bush.]

      --
      Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
      [This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
    5. Re:Where is child porn legal? by Lord+Sauron · · Score: 1

      First of all, if a moderator reads this, mod parent (sepluv) up. It's currently scored as 0.

      >I just hope that they do not extradite me to the USA over copying the copyright notice on the Constitution

      Be careful, as the word "Constitution" is probably copyrighted.

      ---
      Emperor George Bush gives a whole new meaning to "democracy"

    6. Re:Where is child porn legal? by bovinewasteproduct · · Score: 1

      There was a case like this not too long ago, two girls (somewhere between 14 and 16 years of age) were taking pictures of each other (and themselves) and displaying them on the internet. They were both charged with distributing kiddie porn (including the pictures they did of themselves).

      People, intelligence is NOT requirement to hold public office and create laws. For proof look at Kansas and Georgia (monkey trial anyone?).

      BWP

    7. Re:Where is child porn legal? by sepluv · · Score: 1
      Thanks! I got modded "over-rated". Maybe, I should be less forceful. If one sounds nice even if it is crap, I guess, one gets modded up. It was a bit off-topic I admit. This post will be even more so. ;-)

      N.B.: I have read the constitution and actually like it (if only it was implemented) see <plug type="shameless">a post I just made to another related story</plug>

      Be careful, as the word "Constitution" is probably copyrighted.
      You can copyright single words now? Seriously, although I do not think you can do that, different forms of IP have now crossed over (especially in the USA) to make the seperate categories (TM's, copyright, plant rights, patents, &c) almost meaningless. IP needs a serious overhaul.

      Also, due to international agreements, if one country (e.g.: US) considers something, say, patentable and it is applied for there, it becomes registered IP elsewhere.

      This is a big problem now that the USPTO are now patenting discoveries (e.g.: lifeforms, laws of nature, mathematical algorithms and numbers), patenting information (as opposed to copyrighting it), trademarking generic terms (e.g.: "Windows"), &c

      --
      Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
      [This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
  26. The point... by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    I think the point might be to keep it from people who want this stuff or who might be turned to this suff.

    1. Re:The point... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Child pornography has been going on LONG before the internet has been created. The internet is just another tool used by them. While I do believe that that action is horrible and the people who do it have serious mental problems, it does set a very bad precedent for lawers/legislatures in the future. What happens when a state decides that all sites with the word "sex" should be blocked? Also, what gives them the right to censor a private business?

    2. Re:The point... by nick+this · · Score: 1
      I think the point might be to keep it from people who want this stuff or who might be turned to this suff.

      Here's a crazy idea... prosecute them under existing laws?

    3. Re:The point... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I think the point might be to keep it from people who want this stuff or who might be turned to this suff.
      Yes, that's exactly the point (though misguided). The idea among law enforcement is that if you make child porn too difficult to get, too risky to get, or prevent it from being obtainable in the first place, the market will dry up and the producers will stop making it. Thus we are "protecting the children" by cutting the demand, which cuts the supply, which stops the stuff from ever being made in the first place.

      The problem is, this viewpoint is flawed for two reasons.

      1. Making something illegal, making it tough to get, making it risky to get, doesn't stop it. As long as there's demand, someone will be supplying, someone will be producing. Worse, because the supplying is done on the black market and thus prices can get steep, there isn't just 1 guy in his basement trying to be the supplier. The more money there is to be made, the more people you'll have trying to be the suppliers. Want an example? Try prohibition. Try the "war on drugs." Both failed miserably and one of them is still costing us billions of dollars a year. I'm not saying we should legalize child porn, I'm just saying that the continual "cracking down" is a futile effort because there will always be demand and thus there will always be supply.

      2. From what I understand, child porn is not a purely profit driven enterprise. Not everyone who makes child porn does it to sell it. Some of them do it because, surprise surprise, they like diddling kids. These people are going to keep diddling kids whether they can profit off the pictures or not. In other words, even if by some blessing all child porn was eliminated from the world tomorrow, along with all cameras, camcorders, and any other device capable of making porn, the abuse would still be going on.

      But your average law maker fails to think all of this through, instead opting for the lazy way out, "let's make more laws making it even more illegal than it already is!! That'll fix it!"
    4. Re:The point... by jhigh · · Score: 1, Insightful

      it does set a very bad precedent for lawers/legislatures in the future

      How is enforcing the law bad precedent? I agree that it's scary to think that government may eventually decide to filter legitimate sites for political reasons, but that's not what this is about. It's illegal to look at or possess child porn, so PA is keeping people from possessing it. It's no different IMHO, than stopping drugs from coming across the border. I'm sure that LOTS of legitimate people get searched, and I'm sure there are people that don't (legally) make it into the country because of this or that law. But that doesn't mean we stop enforcing the law. Sure, we could all protest blocking drugs from getting into the country because it eventually may lead to not allowing foreigners in our country at all. But that sounds kind of dumb, doesn't it?

      I live in Pennsylvania, and I think it's great that the normal guy who just likes to look at porn doesn't have to worry about accidentally stumbling upon something that gets you landed in jail and labeled as a sick pervert. It happens...it happened to someone I know.

      Just my two cents.

      --
      Social Engineering Expert: Because there is no patch for stupidity.
    5. Re:The point... by crawling_chaos · · Score: 2, Insightful
      1. Making something illegal, making it tough to get, making it risky to get, doesn't stop it. As long as there's demand, someone will be supplying, someone will be producing. Worse, because the supplying is done on the black market and thus prices can get steep, there isn't just 1 guy in his basement trying to be the supplier. The more money there is to be made, the more people you'll have trying to be the suppliers. Want an example? Try prohibition. Try the "war on drugs." Both failed miserably and one of them is still costing us billions of dollars a year. I'm not saying we should legalize child porn, I'm just saying that the continual "cracking down" is a futile effort because there will always be demand and thus there will always be supply.

      This is an argument for no laws whatsoever. Making murder illegal does absolutely nothing to stop murderers as well. Unless you are arguing that there is no point in making anything illegal, you are implictly accepting the fact that certain acts deserve sanction, despite the fact that those sanctions will not end all such acts. From then on, it's an argument about where to draw that line, and this reasoning is not applicable.

      --
      You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
      -- Colonel Adolphus Busch
    6. Re:The point... by zackbar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's not quite enforcing the law. Enforcing the law would be putting down those sites rather than blocking the access to the sites.

      The problem with this situation is that no one but the isp and the attorney general knows which sites are being blocked. There was a story in theregister.com a few weeks ago about a site that the city of Chesterfield wanted blocked by google. Seems that Chester the Molester was supposedly a child porn site. Google blocked them. The site had no idea they were being blocked.

      Turns out that the site was actually a site with tasteless jokes. No child porn involved. But the city of Chesterfield didn't care or couldn't tell.

      So what happens when PA decides that slashdot should be blocked? Or sites that critisize the PA attorney general? No one will know it because PA won't allow the list of sites be be known.

      What happens when one of the sites being blocked goes out of business or gets a new IP? Some innocent site gets that IP, and no one in PA will know. Is the attorney general going to keep that list up to date? Is he going to let the ISP's know when to stop blocking address blocks? How can he? If the isp is blocked the address, he can never check that address again either, so he won't know it's clean.

      The whole thing is just a mess.

    7. Re:The point... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      first of all the cost in this situation is nill... it is a ban list... so i think the point is being deviated from..... the point is that some people think the list should be released and others (including me) think that them not disclosing it is a good thing... keep in mind that most of the world practice situational ethics.
      so the ISPs will be protected by that fact.

    8. Re:The point... by jhigh · · Score: 1

      I agree that it's a mess, and there really is no easy answer. However, I'm not going to let unfounded paranoia about government censorship of legitimate web sites interfere with my judgement about an effort being made by my attorney general protect innocent children.

      --
      Social Engineering Expert: Because there is no patch for stupidity.
    9. Re:The point... by arkanes · · Score: 3, Insightful
      I spend alot of time on the internet. I even look at alot of porn. I have never, not even once, happened across a child pornography website, and I'm probably the most at risk for that sort of thing. I have come across kiddie porn on Kazaa and in newsgroups. I've seen alot of things I didn't want to see, but I'm a mature adult and was able to deal with that.

      This is a moronic law, because it hides rather than addressing an issue. And the AG needs a beating with the dumbass stick for refusing to release the list, for which there is NO valid argument.

      This has not one thing in common with immigration, so I'm not sure where you got that from.

      This law, and support of it, belies a fundamental misunderstanding of what law is for. It's not the job of the state to protect you. If the state wants to stop kiddy porn, it has to seek out purveyors of it and arrest them. Blocking it at the ISP level won't do a damn thing.

      Some other problems, which I'm sure the AG is aware of but doesn't care about:

      a) No oversight. Since there's no way to confirm that a site is actually listed, there's no way to tell whether or not a site is listed incorrectly.
      b) Related to a). No evaluation. If a site is listed incorrectly, or if the domain is bought by someone else (for example) and is no longer a porn site, there's no way to unlist it. There's not even any way to evaluate if it should be unlisted, since access to it from within PA is supposedly impossible and illegal.

      c) Prevents law enforcement from prosecuting kiddy porn, for the same reason. Law enforcement officers can't access kiddy porn sites from within PA, and therefore can't investigate them.

      This is exactly the sort of law that should be under immediate suspicion of abuse, because it fails to addess the problem it purpots to solve, it's overly broad and allows broad leway on behalf of legislature and law enforcement, and because there's no oversight. If it's not being abused right now, it certainly will be in the future.

    10. Re:The point... by zackbar · · Score: 1

      unfounded paranoia?

      Excuse me, but when the PA can censor websites without oversight, and without any public disclosure, it's not a matter of unfounded paranoia.

      Throwing fearful phrases such as "protect innocent children" doesn't make it ok.

      Frankly, the "government" doesn't have a great track record on protecting children either.

      Let's lock up all white males over 30, because as we all know, pedophiles are often 35 year old white males. We have to do it to "protect innocent children"!

    11. Re:The point... by rsborg · · Score: 1
      This is an argument for no laws whatsoever. Making murder illegal does absolutely nothing to stop murderers as well.

      Actually, you're quite wrong. Murderers, you're right... will continue to murder, but often people view murder as a means to an end (removing an annoyance, or silencing an enemy, etc). Child porn, aside from the money to be made if it were on the black market, is NOT. Normal people can be pushed to commit murder but you will find it highly unlikely that a normal person will be pushed to child pornography. Im not talking about "teen" stuff either (real child pornography concerns itself with pre-pubescents). Normal people simply abhor the concept.

      Once you make it illegal, those same normal people who might otherwise find it abhorrent now have an amoral motive: making money.

      To sum it up, if you leave it alone, only the "uncurable" will still be at it. If you make it illegal, expect the immoral, uninterested money-making scum to join in (simply for the black market profits).

      --
      Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
    12. Re:The point... by Istealmymusic · · Score: 1

      Lemme guess, you?

      --
      "The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
    13. Re:The point... by Thing+1 · · Score: 1
      The problem with this situation is that no one but the isp and the attorney general knows which sites are being blocked.

      It shouldn't be too hard to determine which sites are being blocked.

      There are 255 x 255 x 255 x 255 possible sites, giving a grand total of 4,228,250,625 possible sites. Testing all of them, at the rate of once a second, would take 48938 days or 134 years. (Also note that many are invalid, like 0.0.0.0, 127.0.0.1, 10.x.x.x, etc.)

      Now, a machine should be able to test far more than one a second, and given a distributed testing platform (something like distributed.net or folding@home), many PA computers could be used to determine which IP addresses were unreachable.

      The test would be easier if the ISP gave a page saying "This web site has been blocked" instead of just making it unreachable. (But if it was unreachable, we could have computers outside of PA which test the unreachable sites to see if there is actually content there.)

      There must already be tools available to test whether a website exists and is working properly. Searching Freshmeat.net, I found the NIST Web Metrics Testbed tool suite which might be a starting point.

      Given a couple weeks work, we could make the list public ourselves.

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
    14. Re:The point... by crawling_chaos · · Score: 1
      To sum it up, if you leave it alone, only the "uncurable" will still be at it. If you make it illegal, expect the immoral, uninterested money-making scum to join in (simply for the black market profits).

      And the people who make money off the newly "legal" child pornography. There will still be demand, and someone with the morals of a guttersnake will still be trying to make money off of it. Many people find watching strippers to be morally objectionable, yet legal strip clubs still make money hand over fist.

      I remain unconvinced.

      --
      You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
      -- Colonel Adolphus Busch
    15. Re:The point... by zackbar · · Score: 1

      Not a bad idea, although I would guess that unreachable sites inside of PA would have to be tested in PA multiple times, or at least by different routes, since all sites are down at least occassionally and so are some routers.

      Sorry for the run-on sentence there. Too lazy to think of a better way to say that.

      The problem also suggests that some isp's may have blocked different sites as well, since the attorney general may or may not have sent the same list to each. He will have, assuming his office is competent, but details often get lost or overlooked, and even isp's might not keep things current.

      Ironic. The secrecy of the list may actually cause it to be more well-known than otherwise. Blocking the sites might actually help them. Same sort of thing happens to banned books. Some books have become far more popular merely because they were banned.

    16. Re:The point... by Matrix272 · · Score: 1


      It's simple supply and demand. If a portion of the public wants it (however sick those people are), someone out there will make it. If it's risky to make or sell, the price goes up. If the price goes up, more people will want to make it.

      Look at cocaine. It's the perfect example of supply and demand. Lots of people use it, dispite the fact that it's illegal. Why? Because they want to, and they're willing to pay any price to get it. Does it really cost $400 per ounce to make? Not a chance. It might cost all of $4 per ounce to make... but then you have to pay the grower, the smuggler, the "conveniently-absent" law-enforcement agent, plus the cost for shipping it 1500 miles. What would happen if we legalized it, along with all the other drugs? The demand would stay the same, but since the drug lords could now make cocaine in the US, thus saving them money, they would do so. The price would decrease because the supply would increase. Hopefully, all the cocaine addicts would still spend all their money on cocaine and overdose, thereby eliminating most of the demand. If the demand is gone, the supply will disappear. This is all basic economics that people better start thinking about.

      Now, relate it to child pornography. It's extremely risky to make, extremely risky to sell, and extremely risky to have. I'm certainly not advocating it, but try to apply the same logic (without any emotion). Increase the supply, and decrease the demand. People that sexually abuse the children for the profit involved won't be getting nearly as much profit and might move on to more profitable things (like cocaine). Child pornography will still happen because we live in a very sick world, but at least people won't be making money at it.

      To realistically address the problem at hand, repeal this ridiculous law. It helps nobody and it will solve nothing. The only purpose for it is to make the legislators feel like they do something worthwhile. Keep the laws that make it illegal to sexually abuse children, sell such material, and own such material. I really didn't think this was such a major issue... I never knew anybody to get excited over naked children. That's just plain nasty.

      --
      "It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
    17. Re:The point... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, I do know several people who like looking at young children naked (or having sex, though only 1 of the 5 like that). The thing is, you're right; they won't stop. But if we keep this law, people will be going through more extreme means to get it. That's never a good thing. Furthermore, all 5 of the people I know would never actually engage in the acts they like to watch over the Internet. But if they didn't have their porn to release their sexual energy (perverted as it may be) they may actually resort to the sexual acts themselves rather than just pictures of it. Maybe we should start thinking things more thoroughly before we make really dumb and potentially damaging laws.

      Besides, why do we need more laws concerning kiddie porn? Don't we have enough already? Christ, I know in Michigan at least we've had several major child pornographer busts in the past year alone (I remember something like six with over a thousand videos and pictures apiece). Those busts were just the ones I saw on the news; more must have happenned that didn't get reported to my area.

      Then the whole "Why should ISPs even be responsible for filtering what people can see?" and "Who is the government to censor us common carriers (First ammendment and plausible deniability issues included)?" questions come up. I don't even want to go into those.

  27. don't make me laugh by dsanfte · · Score: 1
    They're not supposed to be filtering based on content.


    Says who? A bunch of libertarians? Come on. The ISP is in the perfect position to filter content on a regional basis. Yes, this means state- or province-wide.

    If it is efficient to block child porn at the ISP level then so be it. I don't care if information wants to be free, that stuff SHOULD be censored, and the people who make it should never see the light of day again.
    --
    occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb
    1. Re:don't make me laugh by be-fan · · Score: 1

      Like those crazy-ass commie Founding Fathers. There is a place for censorship. That's just common sense. The government is not that place. That's senseless.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    2. Re:don't make me laugh by plague3106 · · Score: 1

      So that fact that you really don't know for sure what exactly is being filtered doesn't bother you?

    3. Re:don't make me laugh by sketerpot · · Score: 1

      Three things, in combination, really bother me about this. The first one if that the spesifics of the blocking are kept secret for stupid reasons ("disseminating pornography", indeed. I'll disseminate pornography!). The second reason is that the secret blocked sites are being chosen by the state government, which I wouldn't trust at all, especially if you think of all the underhanded things people have done to get elected. Finally, I'm just against censoring the internet for anybody other than yourself.

  28. Am I missing something? by insecuritiez · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Child porn is illegal everywhere I am aware of. Why block the websites when they can be taken down like they should be? That's like when your mother told you to clean your room and so you just shoved it all under the bed, didn't make your room clean and this wont make the internet better. A band-aid won't stop the bleeding.

    1. Re:Am I missing something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Unfortunately, the US Government can't take down sites that are outside their jurisdiction - well, at least not until some of their "enforcers" get back from touring Iraq...

      For the record, I think such sites should be taken down with extreme prejudice, I do support the troops, and I'm not going to comment on The War.

    2. Re:Am I missing something? by a+hollow+voice · · Score: 1
      Well, one idea (and maybe I'm just being a conspiracy theorist here) could be that according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's web site, he ran for Governor in 2002 and is apparently up for re-election soon. Now, with that in mind, he doesn't have the power to take down child porn sites that are almost certainly overseas and way out of his jurisdiction, but he does have the power to enact something like this, so when he tries to get re-elected or takes another stab at Governor, he can be The Man Who Kicked Internet Child Pornography Out of Pennsylvania.

      And a substantial number of voters will probably buy it.

    3. Re:Am I missing something? by CausticWindow · · Score: 1

      The point you're missing, is that other parts of the world aren't necessarily so religiously uptight as the US.

      Where I live, pornography with sixteen year old lesbians are perfectly acceptable by legal standards. In Holland, thirteen is the limit, if I recall correctly.

      --
      How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
    4. Re:Am I missing something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Legal age here is an incredible 14 years old. Although pictures aren't legal at that age for some odd reason. Many places in Asia simply do not have the problems with child nudity that America does.

      There are probably still countries where this content is legal. Personally I feel governments have no right enforcing their laws onto other countries. Once we allow that (which sadly we have) we open the way to create new laws simply aimed at abusing it. The other problem being, only countries like the States will be able to get away with it. We all know how the States insists that the whole world live up to their standards.

    5. Re:Am I missing something? by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      Child porn is illegal everywhere I am aware of. Why block the websites when they can be taken down like they should be?

      Because some countries, like France, let child pornographers and rapists go free.

    6. Re:Am I missing something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well hell, so do we if we can't prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That's a good thing. Or are you saying you're Anti-American?

    7. Re:Am I missing something? by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      Polanski pled guilty.

  29. that dosn't make any sense by autopr0n · · Score: 1

    if they don't tell you what sites are on it, how can they block them? Are they going to make everyone in the state use their DNS servers or something?

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    1. Re:that dosn't make any sense by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      well, they would tell the biggest isp's or something. but like dozens of posts above, it's just stupid extra burden since it's already illeagal.

      it's like that jewish kids mommy in southpark, "we gotta do something!" and then goes promoting something that should not be promoted but nobody can say 'shut the fuck up' because they would seem bad persons if they did, if this is pulled through then next are sites that endorse taking drugs, terrorist sites, toilet humour, sites that help getting abortion, sites that tell that genesis didn't happen exactly word to word like described, pi is 3.000, earth is not flat, bush is another word for cunt, dilbert, _ANY_ site that they might not like.

      luckily, we have freenet now and really, we had the theoretical possiblity to build such thing (crypted p2p designed to act so that it can't be easily distorted nor you can tell what is one node doing or where the information is coming exactly) from the beginning, making any blocking attemps futile in the long run. attempting to block internet is like attempting to block rumours, you can't keep them from spreadig but you can insert false information fairly easily.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  30. Actually Troll, by Sevn · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Pennsylvania rocks for many reasons. Don't take one
    lame law and your experience with Harrisburg and
    label my state a "shithole" you arrogant fuckwad.
    Why don't you just go the whole pathetic route
    and craft up a "Pennsylvania is dieing" troll while
    you are at it. I've lived all over this country in
    the past 20 years, and I always come back here at
    some point for some very important reasons.

    #1 I don't have to lock my fucking doors at night
    because crime isn't an issue.

    #2 The education opportunities here are
    incredible

    #3 There is a bubble of positive economy in many
    areas that isn't effected much by the rest of
    the country.

    #4 The cost of living is low, but the quality of
    living is outstanding.

    #5 The cops aren't assholes.

    #6 You don't have to pay a premium for good
    service with a smile like you do just about
    ANYWHERE else I've been. It's EXPECTED.

    #7 Some of the best Italian food "in my area
    anyway" in the US. Period.

    #8 Excellent nightlife without a shitload of lame
    scenesters trying to pretend they are in L.A.

    #9 Perfect place to raise a family.

    #10 It's own deep history and culture. America
    started here moron.

    So just because you were too lame to enjoy
    yourself here in "Pennsyltucky" doesn't mean
    anybody else wouldn't be able to see past your
    bullshit and truly enjoy themselves in this small
    piece of heaven. Just because NY and LA are the
    only things you see on television doesn't mean
    it's the only way to live you pompous twit.

    --
    For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
    1. Re:Actually Troll, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I think PA is a great state. I live in MD (Annapolis) now, lived in Toronto, Ontario before. I've had the chance to drive through PA a half dozen times, and drive up to Allentown every once in awhile (both for business, and sometimes to go to the marketpro comp. show)

      Its a great state (well, Philly doesnt float my boat, but you cant win 'em all) and my wife and I have considered moving there.

      BTW, grandparent was a troll. I doubt he lived in Harrisburg if he cant spell it correctly.

    2. Re:Actually Troll, by ihatewinXP · · Score: 1

      So I threw an 'h' on Harrisburg. And of course I lived there, how else could I possibly know of the thriving metropolis that is Mechaicsville?

      And yes, Excellent Karma is a license to occasionally troll..... But PA is still a shithole.

      --
      ---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
    3. Re:Actually Troll, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In regards to point #1, could you please tell me where you live? Please be specific. I've been looking to get a new DVD player and television.

  31. WTF? by capitalsucks · · Score: 0

    Wow, and that's where Thom Ridge is from. Not entirely surprising, just a bit surprising that the state takes this action publicly...can they do that?!

    --
    "I feel it is my duty to look at the porn that kids download before I delete it, to be sure what it is."--School Admin
  32. Re:Figures by dopaz · · Score: 1

    I live in Mechanicsburg. While PA certainly has some bad points, it could be much worse. The entire Harrisburg area is growing. New houses are being built constantly, and property values just keep rising.

    Did you honestly live here or are you trolling? You never learned to spell the name of the capital, nor the word capital itself?

  33. Doesn't matter by afidel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If they fail to make the list open then some cracker will crack one of the covered ISP's and make the list public. Information wants to be free, and any information this widely distributed is bound to make it into the wild. Now I personally believe that hidden government is bad in general, but I put up with the CIA and NSA because they provide a service that is necessary and requires secrecy. Whether blocking sites alleged to contain kiddie porn is a compelling enough argument to put up with hidden government is debatable, but for me it is not.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  34. Dumb question. by ggroth · · Score: 1

    If Penn. won't give the ISPs a list of sites to block because of illegal dissemination, isn't it just as illegal for the ISPs to go searching for this stuff to determine what to block?

  35. Why I see this as bad by mewyn · · Score: 1

    Ok, I find child porn disgusting and wrong as most people. It takes advantage of a child while their are most vournable and can scar them for life. But covering the public's eyes is not a way to stop the problem! Just because people who don't want to see it can't get to it doesn't mean it's not happening. Those who want to, will just find away around it. I think PA should invest the money that they are spending on this list and its enforcement on actually stoping the perpitrators of this crime.

  36. Awww... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is a sad day for NAMBLA in Pennsylvania.

  37. The Gingerbread Man alone.... by Sevn · · Score: 1

    would be a great reason to live in Mechanicsburg.
    It has to be one of my favorite bars in the world.
    The G-man in Carlisle isn't too bad either.

    --
    For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
    1. Re:The Gingerbread Man alone.... by davisshaver · · Score: 1

      Hey Sevn, Just some news you might be interested in- the GMan in Hershey is terrible right now. The new places in this area are Tratola Fratali(sp), and also some other place that escapes my mind. Where in PA did you live? I live in Lebanon right now, and would be really interested in talking to another /.er from the area.

      --
      "What we have here is a failure to communicate"
      The Warden, Cool Hand Luke
  38. Unconscionable law by mattr · · Score: 5, Insightful
    First, I am totally against child porn, totally. However Pennsylvania's action is completely hideous and could create more problems than it solves. Consider:

    • Blocking sites make it impossible for Pennsylvania enforcement officers to find child porn traders in their own state, pushing them farther underground!
    • Misuse of secret web censorship lists is well documented. It is possible to disclose information about where these sites are without making an open advertisement. Their argument is illogical.
    • Their action may be unconsitutional and certainly may be moot should a Freedom Of Information Act request be made by someone with the list published anywhere on the net
    • It is not possible for people to use the net to identify Pennsylvania's definition of child porn should the medium itself be censored.
    • There is no information about whether they are making efforts to identify whether underage models are actually being used.
    • I am thinking about the comics sold in every convenience store in Japan that have drawings which could be construed as child porn, and use of the term "Lolita" for young-looking models. I don't want to see these myself, however what happens to people who have gotten used to this kind of titillation and when the virtual source of imagery dries up will they not be led to look for actual child porn and exploitative venues in the real world?
    • Likewise would this cover sites which distribute dirty stories? There must be at least one nasty child porn fantasy in there. An easy way to ban these sites, just have some fundamentalist submit a bunch of illegal stories and sue them?
    • Many fibers undoubtedly run through Pennsylvania, are they going to be censoring all packets at all switches? This is a neat way to start killing the Internet, let's drop every spamming country off the net.. not.
    • There is no information (I presume) about how to find out if your site is banned in Pennsylvania, say what if a hacker started serving child porn from your 0wned box, and there is no information about how to reinstate an IP address.
    • Since the point is in fact removing dangerous and illegal information from the net, in particular the underlying reason should be to protect children from dangerous exploitation, it is in society's best interest to openly maintain a database of sites accused of child pornography, which states and municipalities may use to implement censorship should they so choose.
    • This database would set a huge precedent and it is scary to me, but it would at least remove the idea of secret blocking lists and enable accused sites to fight back. It is possible that many people may not even know their provider is hosting these things, and they can also bring pressure on the hosting companies to police themselves.
    • Unless a site has been wrongly accused of hosting child pornography, or is in fact a honeypot being used for a big sting operation by the government, it is really very unlikely that publically available sites are going to be hosting this stuff, at least in the U.S. (Of course there could indeed be a list of overseas sites which have not been taken down due to different local ordinances). Therefore, it is VERY likely that Pennsylvania's secret list is not only UNLAWFUL but also FALSE in that they do not in fact have a list of child pornography websites to ban. The real threat of secret lists of unlawfully censored information sources is anathema to our society. Either something is illegal in a given territory, or it is not. They can't get away with promoting vague notions of propriety with scare tactics and secrecy. It is not even likely that they will succeed at reducing the flow of child pornography in their state.
    • Pennsylvania's action is also a restraint on interstate commerce in that a secret list will enable law enforcement to search any digital medium including hd,cd,dvd, cable, and wireless networks, for potentially incriminating evidence without explaining exactly what is illegal. In particular it seems likely that web caches operated by universities and companies may unwittingly hold such information, and this action opens the doors to a broad range of abuses including but not limited to corruption of interstate telecommunications.
    • It's also a dumb idea. 'Nuff said.
    1. Re:Unconscionable law by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      I'd like to start out by saying that I also find this block disgusting and awful as well. But just to get things absolutely straight:

      Blocking sites make it impossible for Pennsylvania enforcement officers to find child porn traders in their own state, pushing them farther underground!

      Meh. There's a long tradition of trying to attack social behavior deemed unacceptable by direclty supressing the behavior. You'd have to change a *lot* of things if you didn't want to take this approach.

      Misuse of secret web censorship lists is well documented. It is possible to disclose information about where these sites are without making an open advertisement. Their argument is illogical.

      Yeah, though it's pretty easy to just hand this to the few Penn backbone ISPs.

      Their action may be unconsitutional and certainly may be moot should a Freedom Of Information Act request be made by someone with the list published anywhere on the net

      Does FOIA apply to state as well as federal documents? (I don't have any idea)

      It is not possible for people to use the net to identify Pennsylvania's definition of child porn should the medium itself be censored.

      The textual definition would not be censored.

      There is no information about whether they are making efforts to identify whether underage models are actually being used.

      Good point.

      I am thinking about the comics sold in every convenience store in Japan that have drawings which could be construed as child porn, and use of the term "Lolita" for young-looking models. I don't want to see these myself, however what happens to people who have gotten used to this kind of titillation and when the virtual source of imagery dries up will they not be led to look for actual child porn and exploitative venues in the real world?

      Mmm...I dunno if your conclusion is that likely, but I agree that this kind of ruling is definitely going to impact a lot of people.

      Likewise would this cover sites which distribute dirty stories? There must be at least one nasty child porn fantasy in there. An easy way to ban these sites, just have some fundamentalist submit a bunch of illegal stories and sue them?

      Again, good point.

      Many fibers undoubtedly run through Pennsylvania, are they going to be censoring all packets at all switches? This is a neat way to start killing the Internet, let's drop every spamming country off the net.. not.

      I don't see why. It'd be pretty easy to just filter stuff entering Penn ISPs.

      There is no information (I presume) about how to find out if your site is banned in Pennsylvania, say what if a hacker started serving child porn from your 0wned box, and there is no information about how to reinstate an IP address.

      Very good point.

      Since the point is in fact removing dangerous and illegal information from the net, in particular the underlying reason should be to protect children from dangerous exploitation, it is in society's best interest to openly maintain a database of sites accused of child pornography, which states and municipalities may use to implement censorship should they so choose.

      Again, I agree. This censorship is voluntary, by *Pennsylvania*. Presumably, anything on the list blocked. Except for savvy users using proxies to bounce around the blocks, the only people this list will help find underage porn are people in other states.

      (Of course there could indeed be a list of overseas sites which have not been taken down due to different local ordinances)

      I'm sure that's what's being talked about.

      Pennsylvania's action is also a restraint on interstate commerce

      Wow. Excellent. Wouldn't have thought of that.

    2. Re:Unconscionable law by Phroggy · · Score: 1

      Will filtering be based on A) IP address? B) specific URL? C) domain name?

      A) if the server is using name-based virtual hosting, legitimate web sites with different names hosted on the same IP will be blocked, and nobody will have the slightest idea why.

      B) AFAIK the only way an ISP can block access to a URL is by redirecting port 80 to a transparent proxy server, which will take the request from the client, check the URL, and if the URL is not on the list, make a query to the web server, and return the response back to the client. This can cause some problems, especially if the proxy server caches its content, but it's a common enough practice these days that maybe it wouldn't be a problem.

      Any web site not using port 80 could not be blocked in this way, unless they redirected that port as well. What about something like http://www.kiddiepr0n.net:110/? You can't just redirect port 110 (normally for POP3 e-mail) without users going nuts, so you'd have to just firewall the IP for anything like this. Not likely to have name-based virtual hosts on strange ports though, so I suppose that's OK.

      C) Adding a bogus zone file with no A records would effectively block domains from users who use your nameservers. Plenty of people use other nameservers, though, for various reasons. And, if the domain is also used for legitimate purposes, innocent bystanders get blocked again.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    3. Re:Unconscionable law by Jay+Cornwall · · Score: 1
      Any web site not using port 80 could not be blocked in this way, unless they redirected that port as well.

      I can set up a proxy on a box somewhere running on any port but 80, and connect through that to *any* website on *any* port (including port 80). They can't filter every single port for proxy traffic (and if it were encrypted through an SSH tunnel you wouldn't be able to find it anyway).

      This is just one of those laws intended to discourage the general public from trying to access child pornography, but would do nothing to stop the determined individual. In fact, it's next to impossible to stop people from accessing this stuff.

      The solution (if there is a solution, my guess is that you could only push this further underground) is to combat the source of the problem. Find the people and providers hosting child pornography and stop them at the source; if they refuse, or are in one of those hard to control countries, then just cut off their link to your network.

      Then you have P2P, another whole kettle of fish...

    4. Re:Unconscionable law by mattr · · Score: 1
      I would just like to mention that Dr. David Farber of U Penn is one of the foremost promoters of privacy issues on the Internet, is a scientist, has been a presidential advisor, and is well known for mentioning the bit about how photons don't care about passports.

      Anyone with some pull in Pennsylvania should give him a call. You could mention Matt Rosin sent you though it won't matter, he'll give you an honest listen and may have some good ideas about what to do.

  39. stupidity by ebuite37 · · Score: 1

    So if she weighs more than a duck...she's a witch, burn her!!!

  40. How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Leaving aside any civil liberty issues, I just have one question:

    If they're blocking all the sites on the blocklist, then how is it dangerous for people to get the blocklist? They won't be able to get to the sites!

  41. /me marks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    virginia as the state to move to

    thoughts, anyone?

    1. Re:/me marks by be-fan · · Score: 1

      The state where it's illegal to have sex in any position other than missionary, with the lights off? Don't get me wrong, I love VA. I'm proud of its heritage as one of the leading states in the early union. But these days, outside of northern virginia, it's just another farmer-conservative* southern state.

      * No offense to conservatives (for once :) Merely to distinguish it from more intellectual forms of conservatism.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  42. Simply amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  43. Re:Figures by LogicX · · Score: 1

    I'm quite sure PA is desperate to keep people there: Stay, Invent PA I'm from the Reading area; and yes -- PA is nothing to brag about. Lots of Amish, farmers, people who are clueless about technology, hicks, and those who graduate HS and work at gas stations for the rest of their lives.

    --
    May this post be indexed by spiders, and archived for all to see as my Internet epitaph.
  44. In other news.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The US Government ruled today that all ISPs null route 0.0.0.0/0 to prevent bad, naughty information from being accessed.

  45. Public review... by t4eXanadu · · Score: 0
    "If that's not bad enough, they won't tell you which sites those are because - so the excuse goes - that could be construed as 'disseminating pornography.' So much for public review, huh?"

    Come on you just wanted to get a look at the kiddy porn... I know I do, purely novelty. I have never seen any, and its one of those disgusting, evil things that humans are capable of therefore other humans who cannnot possibly imagine doing it, are interested in it (i.e. war, murder, rape, violence of any sort etc.)

    Personally, I think the whole thing is bullshit. Fit this right in with the Patriot Act (I and soon II) as yet another thing that the Nazis running our country are doing to remove our civil liberties. No, it is not a right to exploit children in very imhumane ways, but yes it is a right to post, download/view, and be arrested for doing so. To me, this is somewhat like that movie Minority Report, where we now deter crime by arresting those that think about it... this is not too far from that. "Yes we'll will stop child porn by blocking all access to it."

    For Christ's sake, go after the source, don't ignore it... does this remind anyone of the war on drugs? Finally, isn't it ironic (thanks Alanis) that this is happening in the former state of our esteemed Secretary of Homeland Terror (err security)?

    -Xanadu

  46. Two-edged sword by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    While I like freedom of speech, I can't think of WHY sites like www.rotten.com exists. No, I don't think they are worth a direct link.

    1. Re:Two-edged sword by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

      you need to read dailyrotten.com. Frequently.

  47. Child Porn Isn't Stopped By Stupid Legislation by jaywhy · · Score: 1

    Child pornography is a major problem, but the problem isn't solved by stupid legislation. Why do we needs laws punishing ISP's and not the child pornographers themselves?

    Why don't we instead of making new dumb laws? Why don't we just trace the money these child pornography companies make and catch the real criminals?

    Pushing the work over to the private sector so the government doesn't have to actually do detective work. Just seems stupid.

    1. Re:Child Porn Isn't Stopped By Stupid Legislation by be-fan · · Score: 1

      I figured out why people make dumb laws.

      When a major news story goes up on TV, what's a poor politican to do? Ideally, he'd realize that the existing body of law already overs this, and announce to the world that they'd work harder to enforce them. Of course, what kind of press release would that make. "We're going to try harder not to fuck up in the future!" The public outcry demands...something "new." Something "innovative." You have to throw all sorts of "reforms" and "initiatives" at the problem. Once you run out of good new policies, you just get the rehashed drivel we're seeing today.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  48. I just thought of something (OT) by be-fan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The public seems to have something of a love-hate relationship with child porn. On one hand, child porn in the classical sense is bad. On the other hand, child porn in the form of Britney and Christina is just fine? I remember reading an article on Britney before the music industry pimped her out. Cute kid. I just say LeAnn Rimes the other day on a Blender cover, topless. Even country music has gotten into it. Sigh... Maybe just another reason to hate the RIAA?

    --
    A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    1. Re:I just thought of something (OT) by VanillaCoke420 · · Score: 1

      Britney, Christina and LeAnn are under the age of 18?

  49. So who made the list? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm wondering who came up with the list, and did they look at the pages when they comiled it? If so, shouldn't they be charged with viewing kiddie porn?

  50. This is bad for everyone. by twitter · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The AG hands out an unverifiable list to "major" ISPs and expects them blocked. How are non "mojor" ISPs supposed to know? They can't and that will be used against them. How do the "major" ISPs know that the site they block is not simply something that embarases the AG? They can't either. Why? Because looking at kiddie porn is a Federal Offense and you go to jail for having it stored on your computer's cahche directory. So you block the content, sight unseen because the State tells you to. That's real censorship and a clear violation of the first amendment protection of free press.

    Even if the program were honest and verifiable, it would still be a bad idea. This essentially closes off sites that alow user posts, such as Slashdot. All you have to do to kill Slashdot in Pensylvania now is persistenlty place kiddie porn links into your posts. But it is not honest and it is not verifiable so the state could just block Slashdot as it pleases. If people noticed and complained that they can't find Slashdot anymore, the State can claim it was an honest mistake. The damage would have been done as the people would have been kept from knowledge in a timely manner. Other sites that few no about can be blocked with impunity.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

    1. Re:This is bad for everyone. by stewby18 · · Score: 1
      How do the "major" ISPs know that the site they block is not simply something that embarases the AG? They can't either. Why? Because looking at kiddie porn is a Federal Offense

      One word: lynx

    2. Re:This is bad for everyone. by ndnet · · Score: 1

      This is very bad. When I was in school, my site (NDNet - http://ndnet.hypermart.net) was doing well and I worked on it often. Some jerk decides to spread rumors that it's porn (this is middle school, so there are too many idiots to find the culprit from) and it gets blocked by the school. Nothing I could do could get the sysadmin to unblock it.

      At least it told me that it was blocked and who blocked it. This will probably just appear to be a 404 or a downed server - if an ISP were to say "in accordance with PA law, this site is forfeit", it could be construed as releasing the list. You break the law to find out that a site is blocked, but if you own a site that could reasonably deserve being blocked you *aren't* breaking the law (well, at least not the PA state law.)

      As a Pennsylvanian, my 'net is now compromised, and only now am I of voting age. DAMN!!!

    3. Re:This is bad for everyone. by Istealmymusic · · Score: 1

      At my school, WebSense blocked our high school web site; where we are able to retreive are assignments and check our grades. Scary indeed.

      --
      "The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
  51. Interstate vs. Intrastate commerce? by rainmanjag · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It seems like this law tries to regulate interstate commerce. If the child porn site is in Nevada (nothing against Nevada, mind you) and Pennsylvania wants to block its citizens from accessing it, the transaction has to occur across state lines. Interstate commerce is the domain of Congress, not Pennsylvania. It would seem to me the only Constitutionally valid law Pennsylvania could pass would bar Pennsylvania citizens from accessing Pennsylvania child porn.

    -jag

    --
    http://starboard.flowtheory.net/
    1. Re:Interstate vs. Intrastate commerce? by ndnet · · Score: 1

      Perhaps that explains why he's only nailed 423 sites.

      On a side note, I'm a Pennsylvanian, so my internet is compromised. And NOW I'm of voting age. DAMN!

  52. Uneducated lawmakers - Or why this law is wrong by jroysdon · · Score: 2, Informative

    The problem with this law is that an ISP cannot search web content for a given filename or even URL and block it based on that. ISPs don't look at anything beyond IP Layer 3. All they care about is routing IP packets. What happens if a large over-seas company hosts thousands of customers with a single IP address (or pool of addresses in the case of a webserver farm)? All it would take is one bad apple at that hosting ISP and Penn. would force Penn. ISP's to block all other content from that hosting ISP's webserver.

    Should that ISP be hosting child porn? Of course not. Should all the other sites hosted at that ISP be blacklisted? No.

    These lawmakers are either uneducated about how the internet works, or simply do not care and feel that blocking child porn is more important than the free speech of the other legit websites that may be hosted on an ISP's shared webserver farm.

    Penn should enforce the law where they can: If the webservers are outside the arm of the US law, go after what isn't: those who download and view this content. They can start with their own state employees at work, which would violate no privacy laws. Folks seriously addicted to kiddie porn known no bounds. I've know of a case where a local county employee spent 2-3 hours a day at work surfing this stuff.

    All this law is going to do is drive kiddie porn sites futher underground and make those in Penn be more sneaky. As someone else posted, Penn. law enforcement won't even be able to access these sites to verify if it has kiddie porn (say if they had a download history on a PC but no actual photos.)

  53. why? by pyrote · · Score: 1

    If they know the addresses to all these domains, why don't they just forward all the domains to a goverment controlled server? last time I checked, the DNS servers call the shots.

    Kiddie porn is illegal so they can find just cause. I know it's drastic, but damn, individual ISP's shouldn't be forced to filter access. Most ISP's are struggling just to keep afloat as is. people in PA will just get the nation-wide Long distance and dialup to NY or California for that matter.

    --
    THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!!! eventually.
  54. Re:Figures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Reading, where Reading railroad on the monopoly board comes from. Reading is a great town. So is York, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mechaniscburg, Allentown, Shippensburg, State College, etc. You have one of the most famous war colleges in the world in Carlisle, along with the largest automobile shows in the world. You have the history of the railroad out of Enola. Make it a point to stop at the whistle stop cafe on 15. Gettysburg. Indian Echo Caverns. The whole amish countryside. One of the largest outlet shopping centers in the world near lancaster. Every major manufacturer is represented. Tons of theme parks. Huge stadium venues for bands all over the place. Perhaps the best college football team in the world. Pennsylvania seems to breed an inordinate number of professional racecar drivers, as well a rivalling texas for breeding first round draft picks and NFL superstars. I wish I grew up there every time I pass through on the way to the shitload known as new york. I think a lot of people are jealous because it's whole wholesome there. Perhaps some sour grapes. I fully intend to retire somewhere along the susquahanna river when I can afford the couple of million or so to buy one of the thousands of mansion sized homes there. There is a lot of very old money in pennsylvania. If you are the kind of person that loves to shop for antiques, there are some incredible finds all over the state. It's nice being able to stop along the road and pickup fresh produce that was picked that morning at one of the many roadside stands. It's neat being able to go to one of the few remaining drivein theatres left. I think pennsylvania has 5 of them. Hershey park is a blast, and Hershey chocolate is pretty neat also. Once I'm retired, I'll relax knowing that if I smash up my car, a life-lion life support helicopter can take me to hershey medical center at nearly 200 miles per hour. Hershey medical center is home to some of the best of the best, and a great medical school to boot. Maybe I'll send my kids to dickinson law. I was lucky enough once to catch the firewords over city island when I was in harrisburg for business over weekend during the 4th of july. It's definitely not a lifestyle for everyone. Plenty of bored kids leaving town because they grew up there and suppose things are better out in what they think is the "real world". A lot of them, much like the parent poster probably won't realize how good they had it until they inevitabely move back when they are old enough to understand what the good life is.

  55. Banning is an Bandaid that wins votes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ..but when is the government gonna put some real money into stopping the root cause of things like child abuse?

    oh...there's an invasion on, we can't afford to have things like a social system, and the rich need their tax cuts..I'm sorry, i forgot, go back to whatever it was you were doing.

  56. A better analogy by twitter · · Score: 1
    The article says,

    Lawyers for the civil liberties group said the technique undermines the Internet's global connectivity by regularly blocking Web surfers visiting harmless sites that may be located on the same server computers as sites with child pornography. They have compared the tactic to disrupting mail delivery to an entire apartment complex over one tenant's illegal actions.

    I've heard that analogy before, but it seems lacking. Few people would care much about a "disruption" of snail mail. It's missing the first amemdment free press ring that it should have. Good analogies are hard to find.

    This is more like confiscating printing machines or jamming the airwaves. Suppose someone decided to broadcast kiddie porn from some kind of pirate TV station. Would you block the legitimate station to get rid of the horrible one? No, you would find the person responsible for the broadcasts and shut them down. Suppose someone in a city started publishing kiddie porn on dead trees. Would you shut down the newspaper over it? No, you go after the publisher. Yet in Pennsylvania, any website that takes content from the public is subject to blocking.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

    1. Re:A better analogy by unitron · · Score: 1
      "Few people would care much about a "disruption" of snail mail."

      Unless of course they were waiting on their paycheck, or retirement benefits, or payments from customers, or something that they had ordered, or mail to or from a family member over where people are getting shot at, or the newspaper from their hometown across the country, or...(the list is almost endless)

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  57. In Other News... by Sunlighter · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's going to be interesting when they try to prosecute somebody.

    Prosecutor: This guy looked at child porn.

    Defendant: It isn't child porn!

    Judge: OK, let's show the jury this alleged porn.

    Prosecutor: No, we can't do that! It's illegal for the jurors to look at child porn!

    Judge: Well, then let me look at it.

    Prosecutor: But, Your Honor, it's illegal for you to look at child porn, too!

    Judge: Well, dammit, what if it's not porn?

    Prosecutor: Well, then you could look at it. But you realize that if you deem it porn, we can charge you with having viewed it.

    Judge: Well, then, I don't want to risk it. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you're just going to have to take his word for it.

    [Jury deliberates.]

    Jury: Not guilty due to lack of evidence.

    --
    Sunlit World Scheme. Weird and different.
    1. Re:In Other News... by aallan · · Score: 1

      Jury: Not guilty due to lack of evidence.

      They're far more likely to call for a lynching, these days, for some crimes, the presumption of innocense isn't exactly to be taken as read...

      Al.
      --
      The Daily ACK - Eclectic posts by yet another hacker
    2. Re:In Other News... by cybercuzco · · Score: 1

      Jury: Guilty, because child porn is bad.

      --

    3. Re:In Other News... by Maxwell'sSilverLART · · Score: 1

      Prosecutor: This guy looked at child porn.

      Defendant: It isn't child porn!

      Judge: OK, let's show the jury this alleged porn.

      Prosecutor: No, we can't do that! It's illegal for the jurors to look at child porn!

      Judge: Well, then let me look at it.

      Prosecutor: But, Your Honor, it's illegal for you to look at child porn, too!

      Judge: Well, dammit, what if it's not porn?

      Prosecutor: Well, then you could look at it. But you realize that if you deem it porn, we can charge you with having viewed it.

      Judge: Well, Mr. Prosecutor, how do you know that it's child porn?

      --
      Moderate drunk! It's more fun that way!
  58. It will only be secret so long... by kramer2718 · · Score: 1

    Some one working at an ISP will leak the list and sooner or later you'll be able to download the list on Bearshare.

    Aint that a bitch Mr. Attorney General.

  59. To the man (a rant), by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looking around on the net and watching what TV is handing out I'd say female deaths and disapearences are up 10% maybe 15% in the US over the last 6 weeks, ages 24-50. The war gets all the media, with a female face to push whose side we're all on, eh? A little switch and bait, a little money gets passed around now and a little later, and the blame goes to someone else. Been there done it a thousand times, some day somebody is going to catch you. Practical uses of psychology, Jesus.

    Here to say One side or the other, neither for me.

  60. Looks like PA is throwing out a test case by Pettifogger · · Score: 1
    The AG over there ought to know very well that this is going to be challenged, appealed and will probably make it all the way to the US Supreme Court.

    No one here seems to realize that this could turn out to be a very good thing. As far as I know, there hasn't been a test case about whether a state can force an ISP to block content. If, as I suspect, this one goes all the way to the Supreme Court, it'll give every ISP (and state, for that matter) in the country a roadmap on how to handle these sorts of situations.

    This is not necessarily a bad thing.

    --

    IAAL

    1. Re:Looks like PA is throwing out a test case by Skapare · · Score: 1

      It might be a bad thing, depending on the end result. If the USSC ends up ruling that states can force ISPs, even in other states, to do the filtering, and not have to release the list, then everyone is screwed. We can hope for the best, but there is no assurance it will happen.

      --
      now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    2. Re:Looks like PA is throwing out a test case by unitron · · Score: 1
      "The AG over there ought to know very well that this is going to be challenged, appealed and will probably make it all the way to the US Supreme Court."

      By which time he will have gotten lots and lots of political mileage out of "protecting the children" and moved up the ladder an elective office or two.

      "What's that. The web site of my opponent in the election is on that list? Gee, I wonder how an innocent little ol' mistake like that could have happened. 'Course it's a secret list so you can't tell any of the newspapers about this. Come to think of it, I think we'll just have to stick you in the pokey for knowing what's on the list. Say, if you know what's on the list you must be one of them there terrorist hackers. I reckon we'll just have to revoke your citizenship and tuck you away in a cell in Gitmo without telling anybody."

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  61. well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i think your answer might be better answered with biology. there is a vast and great difference between child porn, the majority of which feature children and pre-teens, and teenage girls. biologically, teenage girls are sexually attractive. the 18==adult law is more of a responsability and experience assurance than anything else.

  62. After living in buffalo for 8 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and growing up in Germany I moved to pennsylvania six years ago for a technical manager position with a company in state college. The mountains here are so beautiful. A lot of german people settled here a long time ago because a wonderful man named William Penn said that anybody could live on his land regardless of their religious beliefs. This was long before there was any such thing as the united states of anything. William Penn was very far ahead for his time, and Pennsylvania is as well. Stupid problems in buffalo with simple city management problems were solved here centuries ago. There are so many different ethnic backgrounds, but very little racism. So many social programs that actually work here. So many very nice people that it reminds me of my birth home. My parents came to visit a year ago and were amazed at home beautiful it was here and how kind the people are. For lunch I walk out the back door and down a tree lined path to a cafe and pay 3 dollars for a good sandwich and a beer. This is quite normal here. These people love german cars and I had little problems getting my right hand drive bavarian registered in this state. The local BMW dealership does excellent work. The women here are absolutely beautiful. Many cute college girls running around. Many fun places to dance and drink good beer. Everybody is always happy and in good spirits. I wish I hadn't wasted 8 years in buffalo.

  63. Re:Suggested Poll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the morning I awake
    I feel my bladder about to break
    I scratch my balls I rub my eyes
    Just feeling lousy
    My girlfriend tells me that
    It's time to take a bath
    I say, "No, not today, it's only Tuesday"
    Once every 24 hours
    I'm supposed to take a shower
    That's not the way I do it
    Do it, do it
    Personal hygiene is the last thing on my mind
    I don't want to do it
    Do it, do it
    It doesn't make a difference to me
    Everyday I do the same old thing
    So why should I have to be clean?
    Those dreaded Wednesdays and Saturdays
    Also known as shower days
    I hate them.

  64. Exactly the same thing happening in Australia by lpontiac · · Score: 2, Informative

    Electronic Frontiers Australia have been trying to get a list of sites from the authorities over here. While there isn't an all-encompassing list of sites that ISPs must block, there is a list of sites that have been reported to the authorities. If these sites are deemed sufficiently offensive by the same governmental body that issues classifications for movies, and the site falls under Australian jurisdiction, it will be issued a takedown notice.

    So far the government has managed to weasel it's way out of complying with EFA's Freedom of Information requests, due to exemptions in the law. Whether the exemptions should protect the government in this case isn't an open and shut case though - in fact, the government is worried enough that they're currently pushing legislation that would explicitly put such information outside of the scope of the FOI Act.

    The problem with keeping this information from the public is that there is no ability to properly review the process. Many in Australia are of the opinion that our content regulation regime is a farce.

    More information at EFA

  65. Blue Ball by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What's next? Are they going to take down the road signs to the towns "Blue Ball" and "Intercourse" PA so kids don't see them?

  66. I was able to read it this time... by jlleblanc · · Score: 1

    The last article was blocked by my school's filter!

  67. MOD PARENT RETARD DOWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    nuff said

  68. How the hell are ISPs supposed to be able .... by Skapare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How the hell are ISPs supposed to be able to implement and deploy this blocking according to the official list if they are not given a copy of the list? And doesn't that law at least claim it applies to any ISP, even out of state, as long as it serves customers in Pennsylvania ... at least for the Pennsylvania customers? I'd like to know if the list consists of IP addresses, domain names, or complete URLs (or some mix of these).

    If the list has IP addresses only, then it would be theoretically possible to deploy this in a router access list. But many routers don't scale well with large lists because of sequential implementation. And what if the web site in question changes IP address periodically? Does the IP address list get updated equally as often?

    If the list has domain names, perhaps those can be remapped to IP addresses regularly, and put in the access list.

    In either case, using IP addresses has "collateral damage" effects on other web sites sharing the same server, and maybe even other services if not deployed to specific ports (e.g. other connections like SMTP won't work). I'm sure that Mike Fisher, who is so full of himself that he tries to make people think he is the only attorney general around by registering attorneygeneral.com and attorneygeneral.gov, won't care (using the same theory spam fighters use that if the ISP hosts bad customers, then everyone should suffer until the ISP stops hosting them or goes out of business).

    Or perhaps the list consists of URLs, including path names to specific site areas or user pages. The problem is most routers can't deal with that at all. You need a web proxy. That means ISPs now have to pay out more money to run web proxies, with all their associated problems, such as DNS lookup failures for users accessing web sites in different DNS realms (e.g. DNS name spaces NOT rooted at the normal ICANN root servers) or with add-on TLDs (e.g. pseudo-realms that take normal TLDs and combine with special TLDs like ... uh ... the ".xxx" and ".sex" TLDs). And what about accessing HTTPS sites via the proxy? The certificates won't match up unless the browser is configured to "trust" the proxy (e.g. accept the proxy's certificate for that half the end-to-end path, or just connect to the proxy unencrypted and ask for an HTTPS URL). If the ISPs don't filter on HTTPS, then the porn sites that are intended to be blocked can just make HTTPS work. OTOH, if the ISPs force proxying HTTPS, that becomes a major privacy violation.

    So one way or the other, porn sites can evade the blocking. If blocked by IP address, they just move around ... maybe as often as every 5 minutes with very dynamic DNS or other very highly distributed methods. And if blocked by URL, they can use HTTPS to bypass proxies or force the ISPs to invade secure web privacy. And if blocked by domain name in the DNS server (using local authoritative zones) users can get around that by not using the ISP DNS servers, running their own DNS servers, or the porn site can register more domain names (they're cheap for porn operators).

    And with tens of thousands of open proxies around the world (check today's load of spam for more addresses), there's going to be plenty of ways for perverts to get their fix once they learn these methods. Is the PA AG going to track all the open proxies out there, too?

    But in either of these cases, there isn't much the ISP can do without the list. And I didn't see anything in the text of the law that says the list has to be held in strict confidence by the ISP (as if that would apply to an out of state ISP anyway).

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  69. ISP's use publc lines by b17bmbr · · Score: 1

    they are using facilities in the public domain. although, IANAL, and don't pretend to be one, this would be similar to using the phone lines to organize criminal activity. or, better, it is similar to radio or television broadcast frequencies.

    if an isp laid (no pun intended) its own lines, and ran its own vpn or whatever, and had its own backbone, etc., than the issue is different. but, unless i am wrong, and that possibility does exist, most isp's are leasing lines and connect over a public backbone. thus, there is clearly a compelling interest that those lines not be used to disseminate child porn.

    as for the slippery slope, this is pure nonsense. remove the word porn. just deal with the age factor. we are talking about sexually explicit photography of children UNDER 18. if you can't tell the difference between that and naked baby photos my wife takes of my kids, then i feel sorry for you.

    --
    My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
    1. Re:ISP's use publc lines by unitron · · Score: 1, Interesting
      "...if you can't tell the difference between that and naked baby photos my wife takes of my kids..."

      ...then you're already most of the way to being qualified to serve as a U.S. Postal Inspector.

      I'm not making that up.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  70. Common Carrier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I think that the general model for the internet should be more like the phone system. The phone company cannot be held responsible for anything you say over the phone or whom you call. I expect my ISP to be much the same. I give them packets, and they deliver them to the destination. It's not their job to know what's in the packets or where they're going.

    This idea of forcing ISP's to block certain sites is just ridiculous. Somehow, it's just the wrong layer in the network stack. If you don't want people to look at porn, you either shut down the porn servers or install filters on the client. It should not be the ISP's job to watch what their clients are doing, much like it's not the phone company's job to keep track of what you say over the phone, so long as you pay the bill.

    And they're forgetting one small thing with their secret list: They have to at least give it to the ISP's, and I'm sure that there are a number of ISP's in Pennsylvania who would be more than happy to share this list with the rest of the world.

    1. Re:Common Carrier by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

      But the internet isn't like the phone system. Most people's web servers aren't at their houses, and aren't owned by the people, they're owned by the ISPs. The internet allows you to connect to anyone in the world for a flat rate. Much of it is anonymous.

      If the internet were a truly peer to peer system with the ISPs having name and address information for every customer and international connections were cost prohibitive, then we'd have a much different regulation scheme in place.

  71. Two things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Johnsonville brats and lebanon balogna.

    Cookouts growing up in PA are something I miss and I try to make it back for the fourth of july every year. Even if you didn't grow up german, almost everybody does brats, sourkraut, and lot of other german stuff that's awesome on a grill. Cookouts and beer all summer long is what I remember from growing up in PA. Funnel cakes at hershey park. All the bitchin fieldtrips in school. When you have tons of history all around you, it's pretty easy to pile on a yellow bus and drive an hour to see it. Riding innertubes down hundreds of local rivers all summer long smoking pot and drinking beer. I miss the girls in PA something fierce. Lots of really hot looking girls in cut off jeans and bikini tops without the attitude problems I've come to expect here in dallas. The shitty thing is it's very hard to score a tech job in PA. The competition is very fierce and the jobs scarce. I've been trying to get off the "third coast" for 3 years now and get back home. I have my parents ship me lebanon balogna because I can't live without the stuff. If you ever try it, you'd understand.

    1. Re:Two things by davisshaver · · Score: 1

      I live in Lebanon, and I know exactly what he is talking about. The girls in the summer are very nice, down by lakes and stuff. Hershey is a big part of the area, from business to the Herhsye Bears. The rivers and strams and that are exactly as he understands. If whoever wrote this gets this, please email me at canyougrokme@hotmail.com

      --
      "What we have here is a failure to communicate"
      The Warden, Cool Hand Luke
  72. PA ISPs? by Phroggy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Does this law affect only those ISPs which are based in Pennsylvania, or ISPs that operate in Pennsylvania, or that have a Point Of Presence in Pennsylvania?

    What about a national DSL ISP that doesn't have a POP in Pennsylvania, but instead backhauls all their Pennsylvania customers over the phone company's ATM cloud to a POP in a neighboring state? It could be argued that the customer is not technically connected to the Internet in Pennsylvania.

    In order to block specific URLs (rather than IP addresses), PA ISPs would be required to redirect port 80 through a transparent proxy server. This can potentially cause problems (although it's not a problem for most people). If the law does not apply to ISPs that are not based in Pennsylvania, could non-local ISPs to advertise that they don't redirect, block or monitor traffic, possibly giving them a competitive advantage over local PA ISPs?

    Of course I'm all for getting rid of child porn, but this doesn't sound like the way to do it.

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    1. Re:PA ISPs? by krinsh · · Score: 1

      I'm certainly not against blocking child pornography; but I still disagree that anything for public ISP users should be blocked by an ISP unless it is hostile traffic such as malicious code/viruses, etc. And I'm very offended that they will make a list of sites to ban and not give the owners of any of those sites any chance to make sure they aren't on that list because of a 'keyword' or some other mistake. And in the case of cable and DSL providers I guess they'll have to ban a significant majority of their own users, eh? I'm in West Virginia and Adelphia's internet provisioning is in PA. I wonder how this affects me; especially if they ban anything legitimate? Could the ISPs themselves share the 'banned list'?

      --
      I think with the interesting people, their lives can't possibly be wrapped up into a nice little package.
  73. Who maintains the list? by Phroggy · · Score: 1

    Who exactly maintains the list? Can a site be removed from the list if it stops hosting the objectionable content? How would the PA Attorney General's office be able to check the site to verify this, if every ISP in the state blocks access to it?

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  74. Its A Cover UP?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Web Sites like sarsscam.com (do a google search) are shut down that reveil information that possibly Gov or someone secret group or whatever do not want people to view .. All I know is I can't load the web page

    HOw does this relate. its a Evil way they can cover up items they do not want the world to see. ahh well its child porn. Gov have done this before with certain people claiming they are racists or something that has nothing to do with them..

    sites to check out http://www.thepowerhour.com

  75. Yeah, us "PA Girls" are hot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But PA guys are the best. I've been stuck in cali for 4 years now surrounded by the most amazingly boring conceited men imaginable. The biggest difference is that guys that are built here go to a gym and work out so they can "look good" and "score with the ladies" but guys from PA that are built look that way because they actually play sports. I was lucky because last year a really good looking guy from PA started working down the hall, and I got his ring on my finger. ;P You can keep your boring stuck up west coast guys. I'll stick with my sweet, hot, well built, big dicked PA guy any day of the week.

  76. That is so bizarre! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is way offtopic but this whole thread is.

    Me and a few other girls in my dorm were just talking about this same thing short time ago. I'm at a very northern very irish college. There are 4 different guys that are like, the hottest guys that all play football, are very well built, and VERY well built where it counts, and they are all from pennsylvania. We know at least two of them are on full athletic scholarship. We joke about how it has to be something in the water and how we need to dump our boyfriends and transfer there!

    1. Re:That is so bizarre! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Me and a few other girls in my dorm

      Bullshit. Girls don't read Slashdot, just like girls don't hang out on IRC. You're either a guy pretending to be a girl, or a cop pretending to be a girl! Either way you're one sick motherfucker.

  77. A better example by CrazyJim0 · · Score: 1

    Does anyone have a link of a site banned by PA, that is non deserving?

    1. Re:A better example by unitron · · Score: 1
      "Does anyone have a link of a site banned by PA, that is non deserving?"

      It's a secret list, so there's no way to know for sure if it's banned or not.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  78. It should be time limited at least by nich37ways · · Score: 1
    Laws like this in a way can be very useful. If the gov/law enforcement agency of your choice discovers a new "kiddie porn" site then they can immediatly have its access shutdown. Removing a site especially one that is not located in America must take time and cutting off access for the 2-3 weeks that it takes to have the site taken down is fair.

    However when a site has already been removed from the internet then its details should be made public. This would allow some review of what the government is doing. However if the site cannot be removed as it only breaks American Laws then there is not justifiable reason for keeping the blocking information secret.

    nich

    --
    37 - what does it stand for really...
  79. Depends where in Phili by Sevn · · Score: 1

    South Phili has a *cough* charm all it's own. But
    you have areas like king of prussia and shwenksville
    and especially mana yunk sp? that absolutely rock.

    On a side note, a lot of people would be amazed if
    they knew how many movies are filmed each year in
    Harrisburg. They thought they were looking at
    detroit or chicago or DC, but they weren't. A lot
    of movies that require maasive trainyard shots, or
    D.C. looking architecture are filmed there. Kinda
    sucks for traffic in the summer though.

    --
    For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
  80. No need to keep the list secret by pussyco · · Score: 1

    The ISPs are obliged to block the sites, so no-one can view them, even if they had the list. Mind you, seeing www.ashcroftsucks.org on the list might raise suspicions

  81. PLEASE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Seriously for anyone who hasn't lived in PA this should be marked +5 Informative"

    How about +5 stupid shit?

    Steelers
    Eagles

    and Skins spring training in Carlisle.

    Penn fucking STATE FOOTBALL

    Not everyone has dickless geek priorities for where they live. Go set up a beowulf cluster of dildoes to ride on you big pussy.

    1. Re:PLEASE by ihatewinXP · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      ::Basks in beautifull 80* weather with my top down yesterday::

      Nah that's all right, I like my priorities where they are - far the fuck away from PA.

      (but you do have me on Penn State football, I guess there is _one_ good thing up there, Joe Pa would strike me down if he heard me talking shit about State College)

      --
      ---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
  82. MOD PARENT UP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but it's all about the terrible towel!

  83. Gov. Schweiker starred in a Kidporn flick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Anyone else glad our troop are finally shooting republicans, too bad it's not in the right country.

    BTW, Jan LaRue, [senior director of legal studies at the Family Research Council] You can suck my dick you sanctimonious cow. Is it true that Kevin Hanley, is the buttboy for Attorney General Mike Fisher?

  84. Possession by Merk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or maybe the music industry is selling what people want but are ashamed to admit they want. Heck, it wouldn't be the first time.

    I think people over-react to child porn. Just look at the replies in this topic. Everybody seems to have to put "I don't like kiddie-porn but..." in every message. It's almost like "I'm not a communist but..." Does anybody really think that someone who doesn't include that disclaimer goes out and rapes kids?

    Exploitation of anybody, including children is bad. No question. I fully support going after anybody who makes, sells or buys child porn, but I'm not 100% sold on going after people who possess it. If it is simply found "in their possession", which could possibly even mean that it showed up in their browser cache. Should you be in trouble because you mistype a URL and get one of the many porn typo sites?

    Maybe intentionally seeking out child porn online should be illegal, but the penalty should reflect the crime. Someone who doesn't buy, sell, or make kiddie porn hasn't hurt any kids. Now the the argument is of course that viewing child porn leads to other crimes against kids. But isn't that the kind of thing that Slashdotters hate when it comes to other things? Just because someone loves playing violent video games and perhaps even makes a level that reflects their school or office doesn't necessarily mean they're going to go shooting up their school or office. Perhaps the punishment for seeking out child porn should be giving up all their privacy in case they can't control their urges.

    This isn't intended to be flamebait. I'm sure there's many a libertarian who would agree with me that any action that doesn't actually hurt somebody else shouldn't be illegal. If you're going to moderate it down because you don't like what I'm saying, consider posting a reply instead. And it's not offtopic, the topic is child-porn and law, isn't it?

    1. Re:Possession by shepd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're right, and here's why:

      By using a definition that says anything representing any sort of sexual act of anyone "underage" we get into situations that make this illegal (yes, I'm in Canada, and I'm technically going to break the old version of our laws):

      It is reccomended that anyone under the age of 18 use a condom during sex to prevent the possibility of conceiving a child. A condom is worn by simply removing it from its wrapper and then rolling it down one's penis.

      Because I mentioned sex, and a sexual act between minors I have broken the law. Does anyone else here think that's silly? Insane, perhaps?

      Don't believe me? Click here.

      That's why child porn laws should be used to protect children from abusers, and not from information such as the above which they have a right to know. But an incensed public just doesn't seem to understand the difference, unfortunately, and only listens to police who clamour for such broad-scope laws that let *them* decide who gets raided and who doesn't, rather than you.

      Remember, you can tell someone's true support for free speech by seeing if they're willing to support those they detest who harm no-one. And I detest pedophiles, but if they aren't abusing children, it's hard for me to find a reason they need to go to jail for. Really hard. Mental hospital, sure, but jail...

      I think this site puts it better than I ever could have.

      For those wondering what goes through the mind of a pedophile, read this. I'm surprised I even found it.

      --
      If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
    2. Re:Possession by Merk · · Score: 1

      Thanks for backing me up. I was afraid that I was only going to get flamed for what I wrote. The one thing that gives me pause in what you said is the mental hospital idea. The same logic used to be used to try to cure homosexuals. Looking back, most people see that as barbaric. These days homosexuality is accepted as just another sexual preference, as are people who like wearing diapers, people who like being tortured, or like torturing others, etc. Now I actually can't imagine a world where pedophelia is considered just another sexual preference, but the similarity bothers me. If pedophiles are put in a mental hospital, I would hope that it isn't to cure them, but rather to help them understand where their desires come from, why acting out on their fantasies would be harmful to a child, and how to make sure they never lose control. If instead the hospital tries to "cure" them so they think that only women who look like Barbie are good looking, then that just frightens me.

    3. Re:Possession by shepd · · Score: 1

      >The one thing that gives me pause in what you said is the mental hospital idea. The same logic used to be used to try to cure homosexuals.

      I think the big difference here is that homosexual activity isn't abusive, as both partners are willing, whereas it's pretty much impossible to make that argument about pedophilia.

      Therefore, IMHO, it's in the best interest of society if people with pedophiliac urges get themselves some help before they actually decide to carry through on them.

      >These days homosexuality is accepted as just another sexual preference, as are people who like wearing diapers, people who like being tortured, or like torturing others, etc. Now I actually can't imagine a world where pedophelia is considered just another sexual preference, but the similarity bothers me.

      Oh, I can imagine it. Heck, it already _is_ a sexual preference if it involves sex. Like I said earlier, though, there's positive sexual preferences that either have a neutral, or overall, beneficial impact on society (the ones you mentioned fit in here), and there's negative sexual preferences, where the impact on society means that the world is a less safe, less pleasurable place to live in. I don't advocate just pedophiles to get help, I would ask anyone with any sort of sexual preference that requires them to abuse others against their will to get help.

      >If instead the hospital tries to "cure" them so they think that only women who look like Barbie are good looking, then that just frightens me.

      I agree -- the hospital's job should be to help the patient stop their urge to abuse minors, not change whatever their non-abusive sexual preference would be. If it turns out they're homo S&M artists, fine with me. As long as they don't want to go about abusing others, I couldn't care less.

      Just my 2 cents.

      --
      If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
    4. Re:Possession by Merk · · Score: 1

      You're making a few assumptions that I'm not sure are valid. The first one is that a pedophile will necessarily abuse children. That's the basis of all the laws on the books, but is there any proof? I'm sure they're more likely to abuse children, but you're basically saying that people have no willpower, that every person who has a preference will follow it. Stop for a second and replace "children" with "supermodels".

      If Joe has a preference for supermodels, does that necessarily mean he'll ever have sex with one? Does it even mean he'll try? Realistically there's no reason a supermodel would ever be interested in him, so the only option he'd have to have sex with one would be rape. While Joe is no megagenius, he's also no idiot. He realizes that if he gets caught raping a supermodel that his whole life will be ruined. Nobody will respect him, he'll go to jail, etc. So Joe shrugs and says "well maybe I'll just try to find me a Sears catalogue model". Someone with pedophile tendancies might shrug and say, I'll just find me a young-looking mate, and that might be enough to satisfy them.

      Is pedophelia something that makes people insane? Is there an extreme lack of judgement and/or willpower that automatically goes with having an attraction to kids? I doubt it. It is probably a preference just like any other, just taken to an extreme. Some like big breasts, some like curly hair, and most like younger rather than older, but for most people it's a preference rather than an obsession. The media goes so completely psycho over every case that it just seems like the slightest preference for youth over age means that someone is a psychopath.

      The other assumption is the much more controversial one. Is any sexual contact between an adult and a child necessarily damaging? Throughout history many cultures have thought that it was natural. In situations where the adult uses his/her power over the child to force him/her to do something sexual of course it would be damaging, but what about other cases? I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the damage caused to kids is from the reactions of those around them.

      I've seen situations where a kid was almost hit by a car, but didn't notice or particularly care. A mother comes running up, screaming because she was so scared that the kid would be hit, and that fear gets translated to the kid who starts bawling. If everybody around you acts as if something is awful it is bound to shape how you feel about it, especially if you're a child.

      At the same time, I would guess that nearly all cases of pedophiles getting sexually involved with kids in the current world are harmful to the child. The only ones who would act on their desires are the insane. They know how serious the risks are, and how their lives will be ruined if they're caught, but they do it anyway. Can anybody in that situation not act in a way that's harmful to the child?

      I just wish a little science would replace the hysteria over pedophelia. I remember reading a book that talked about some of the recently discovered (50 years ago) tribes in New Guinea, and how many different types of relationships these tribes had. In some, males and females never lived together at all, and in one I think there was some sort of adult-child sexual contact. I think it would really be helpful to study groups that haven't been "polluted" by our morals and cultural norms. They could be studied to see if children in these situations really are damaged by the very act of sexual contact with an adult, or if the damage depends on the situation.

  85. whitelist by trb · · Score: 1
    If that's not bad enough, they won't tell you which sites those are because - so the excuse goes - that could be construed as 'disseminating pornography.'

    If they are concerned about disseminating pr0n, they should just disclose their list of unblocked sites instead.

  86. Why would you! by Manip · · Score: 1

    Why would you want to look at sites with child porn on. I is a block list what else you need to know. Anyway if it was public info someone would connect to some proxy and surf it anyway so you might havewell keep it a secret :)

    1. Re:Why would you! by t_allardyce · · Score: 1

      If no-one wants to look at child porn, why block it in the first place? Trying to block _anything_ on the Internet is against the spirit of free speech. The 'free speech' of child pornography isn't the problem - the problem is the fact the people take the pictures and abuse the children, stop that at its source and thats the end of the problem. If the government thinks that allowing people access to the sites will make them want to abuse children themselves (which actually sounds like a reasonable theory to me) then surely that proves that freedom of speech is inherently flawed and thus the basis of American belief - that natural law/capitalism is the best is flawed. Is it? or am i completely wrong here, i don't live in America so im not too sure.

      oh yeah and to answer your question - its so people can make sure that legal websites have not been added to the list in 'error' or in bribes

      --
      This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
  87. Two forked issue by Rooked_One · · Score: 1

    before you go off on voicing your opinion for either way, realize that for every positive there is a negative to keep checks and balances in effect. Go on and try to prove relativity wrong - I dare you. =p

  88. Bogeymen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What you say is true. It's also no acccident. Child porn is to the Internet as Saddam Hussein is to the Middle East.

    In the words of Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, et al:

    "While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein"

    Remember: the actual goal is not necessarily the stated goal.

  89. Don't worry . . . by werdna · · Score: 1

    . . . there are extensive mechanisms to protect against abuses here.

    1) Despite child pornography being outside the protected classes of speech, any mechanism capable of being arbitrarily extended beyond that scope will be subject to strict scrutiny under the First Amendment. It is a dead lock certainty that Pennsylvania's program would be shut down upon the first hint of abuse, and the first guy to get shut down therefor who isn't actually stepping over the line to criminal conduct will have a hell of a lawsuit.

    2) This is what public records requests are for. It is probably impossible for him to withhold it -- and the newspapers have probably already made their formal demands. This is an area where the fourth estate has still been vigilant -- and this is the type of case that newspapers love to press in court.

  90. Why the ISP? by Chanc_Gorkon · · Score: 1

    That is what I don't get. If they want to get rid of Kiddie Porn, why are they just trying to block it? It seems to me that you should prosecute the dispicable freaks that put up this kind of crap. That would get more done than this will. I know that would be difficult too, but that ain't my problem. The law enforcement types all need to get a little more knowledge of how this technology works and then when some senator (state or federal) proposes a silly law, the law enforcement folks who know can tell them it's stupid and won't accomplish anything. I mean a lot law enforcement officers I have met have all been barely capable of punching the pin number into a credit card machine at the local Dunkin Donuts.

    --

    Gorkman

  91. Telling ISPs which sites to block is illegal too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the government says it would be illegal to tell anyone which sites have been blocked (it would be disseminating porn to do so), how did they tell the ISPs themselves which sites to block? Was that not disseminating porn? It's the same list after all!

    You cannot have laws which seek to protect people without checks and balances - there must be some way of checking that the list is correct and does not harm the interests of others, ie innocent sites which just happen to be on the same server.

  92. Mod parent up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mod parent up

    1. Re:Mod parent up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mod parent up.

  93. Here is what disturbs me by Gryftir · · Score: 1

    I have a erotic picture of myself when I was 15. I took this picture with a webcam for a girl I liked, it involves only me. That picture is technically child porn (though I'm unclear if it was illegal for me to view it then, and it is illegal for me to possess it now. That blows my mind.

    My parents have a picture of me naked that clearly shows my genitals. Technically that could be child porn. I'm embarrased by the picture yes, but it should not be child porn.

    even if you are totally against the possession (as opposed to creation) of child porn, shouldn't those pictured have a right to I don't know, sanction their own pictures?

    Statutory rape bugs me for similar reasons. I'm sorry, but if they were abused, then prosecute them. But why is it illegal to have sex with a willing partner? Coercion is handled by sexual abuse and rape laws, so why criminalize a victimless crime?

    It's then hypocrisy to say that two minors having sex aren't commiting a crime? Is one of the hidden powers of being an adult, along with voting and such, the ability to turn normal sex (between minors) to rape? Basically I'm against victimless crimes. If something wrong happened, like coercion or abuse, then it's a crime already. Maybe I'll join that Free State Project>. I'm sick and tired of being told things that don't harm anybody should be criminal.

    Gryftir

    --
    http://www.santacruzbynight.com/index.shtml Santa Cruz By Night Vampire Larp
  94. Easy fix by heikkile · · Score: 1
    The problem has been explained here well enough already. Here is my proposed fix. It requires that a few PA ISPs get together and agree that

    1) Since they are required to block an unspecified list if sites, the only thing they can do is to block all access to the net.

    2) Since this is such a big move, they will have to implement it stpe by step. The first step is to block the access for all sites related to PA state administration, and home lines of the people involved.

    It might be sufficient just to announce this policy, but if the silly law isn't retracted, they may have to step in and actually block the lawmakers first...

    --

    In Murphy We Turst

    1. Re:Easy fix by Loosewire · · Score: 1

      I agreee that would be a great solution - however someone on the side of the PA admin will say "Oh so you support Child pornography do you" - damned media war with everything thease days :-(

      --
      Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
  95. Legal Clarification by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it still kiddie porn if you have pictures of a 12 year old taken the day after she committed a crime that causes her to be tried as an adult?

  96. PA law is strange on beer too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can only buy beer in PA from a bar unless you buy it from a distributor. Minimum quantity 1 case. Bar prices for 6 and 12 packs to go are higher than national average while case prices at the distributor stores are decent.

    Liquor stores sell wine and hard stuff but no beer.

    Go figure!

  97. I run an ISP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I run an ISP, no one has mentioned anything to me to ban any websites, but I am a smaller ISP. I have 1 portmaster 3 w/ 2 pri's comming into it.

  98. ISP's As Carriers Notion Is Bogus by reallocate · · Score: 1

    >> ISPs are just carriers. They're not supposed to be filtering...

    Says who? Seems to me it makes as much sense to compel ISP's to block child porn as it does to go after wholesalers and distributors that knowingly disseminate the stuff.

    Communities have long prevented the illegal sale of child porn by blocking retailers from displaying and marketing the stuff. I.e., we don't allow them to carry it. The only effective way to prevent the display and marrketing of child porn via the web is to block access to known sites.

    This isn't a free speech issue; it's about stopping criminals. Ordering an ISP to block child porn in no way diminishes that ISP's freedom to engage in legal activity.

    --
    -- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
    1. Re:ISP's As Carriers Notion Is Bogus by sjames · · Score: 1

      The significant difference is that by the nature of retail, a retailer will see the merchandise and know what it is befor it goes on sale.

      An ISP cannot possibly apply enough manhours to look at every single requested webpage and approve it before transmitting it to the user. Furthermore, if they COULD, they would run afoul of the laws since their employess would inevitably view illegal materials from time to time in the process of deciding to allow or deny the access.

      So, we end up with a list of sites that are declared offlimits. The act of verifying that the site SHOULD be offlimits is intrinsically illegal (public oversight of government MUST be legal in a democracy, even a democratic republic). The act of actually telling anyone what sites are claimed to be illegal is illegal as well.

      History has shown thet wherever public officials are allowed to act without oversight, sooner or later the authority is abused. It's not 'will this lead to abuse' so much as 'when will this lead to abuse, and how severe will it be'.

    2. Re:ISP's As Carriers Notion Is Bogus by reallocate · · Score: 1

      >> An ISP cannot possibly apply enough manhours to look at every single requested webpage and approve it...

      Pennsylvania is providing a list of URLs. No one is requiring ISPs to review every requested webpage, just as no one requires retailers to examine every page of every magazine.

      ...we end up with a list of sites that are declared offlimits.

      We end up with a list of content providers who are illegally disseminating illegal material. The nature of the medium these content providers use to distribute this illegal material is aboslutely irrelevant. Child porn distributed via hard copy magazines remains illegal when someone scans the photos and posts them on a web site. It would remain just as illegal if the scans were printed and tied to carrier pigeons.

      The act of verifying that the site SHOULD be offlimits is intrinsically illegal (public oversight of government MUST be legal in a democracy, even a democratic republic). The act of actually telling anyone what sites are claimed to be illegal is illegal as well.

      This statement borders on incoherent, but seems to be asserting that prohibtions on child porn are themselves illegal because enforcing the law entails viewing the illegal material. The absurdity of this notion is readily apparent.

      Finally, this isn't about putting sites "offlimits". It is about preventing the illegal distribution of illegal material. A rational ISP ought to be glad to comply with the Pennsylvania action. Any ISP brought up on criminal or civil charges for disseminating child porn would be hard pressed to convincingly demonstrate that they had no reason to suspect that child porn was transiting their network.

      --
      -- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
    3. Re:ISP's As Carriers Notion Is Bogus by sjames · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This statement borders on incoherent, but seems to be asserting that prohibtions on child porn are themselves illegal because enforcing the law entails viewing the illegal material. The absurdity of this notion is readily apparent.

      Re-read it carefully! I'm saying that having a secret list of illegal sites that must be blocked, and at the same time claiming that turning that list over to the press (or other members of the press) is contrary to our system of checks and balances.

      It's fine that the material is illegal. It's fine to have a list of URLs with illegal content.

      What is not fine is requiring ISPs to install expensive hardware to make implementing the blacklist feasible. The other thing that is not fine is refusing to allow the press to look at the list in order to confirm or deny for themselves the allegations that at least some of the URLs on the list do NOT contain childporn or any other illegal material.

      Consider this: Nobody can see the list but the ISP. The ISP can not legally share the list with others. The ISP cannot check the sites for itself. SO, The state AG sees a site that is politically embarrasing but perfectly legal. He illegally censors political discourse by putting it on the child porn list. Nobody can legally find out about his misdeed. The act of alleging his crime becomes an admission of breaking the law.

      Keep in mind that this came up because Worldcom alleges that there ARE sites on the child pron list that have nothing to do with child porn. The AP requested a copy of the list so that they could check their facts. They were denied access. The AG claimed that he may not legally provide them with the list. Meanwhile another Pennsylvania law REQUIRES that he provide the list.

      The logic IS contorted and barely comprehensible. The source of the contortion is the Pennsylvania Attourney General.

      On another note, you've never delt with a large network before, have you? While I'm certain that any decent ISP would be happy to not carrry any child porn through it's net, that's harder than it sounds. To do it properly, they will have to use a layer 4 firewall in order to distinguish between virtual hosts. On a big pipe, that's astronomically expensive. Worse, they could be charged for a simple error in entering the list. Actively seeking to stop crime is the job of paid officers of the law.

      The magazine analogy is weak. In order to make it fit, imagine a 'news stand' that sells over 1 million distinct magazines a day, each custom ordered by their customers. They come in by the semi truckload in a continuous stream. Now, try to avoid selling a list of 400.

      If the objective is to eliminate child porn (a fine objective I might add), I would think the proper method would be to enforce the law against the site owners and producers. Be very public about it.

    4. Re:ISP's As Carriers Notion Is Bogus by reallocate · · Score: 1

      Agree that the law ought to be enforced against the site owners and content providers.

      Prepared to withhold judgment on whether or not the Pennsylvania AG should publicize the URLs on that list. Active investigations may be (ought to be) in progress.

      Don't really care about the costs and burdens blocking sites places on ISPs. Blocking child porn is more important than the ISP revenue.

      --
      -- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
    5. Re:ISP's As Carriers Notion Is Bogus by vsprintf · · Score: 1

      Don't really care about the costs and burdens blocking sites places on ISPs. Blocking child porn is more important than the ISP revenue.

      I love that attitude: I don't care what it costs - as long as someone else is paying for it.

      It's an unfunded mandate by the government, but someone has to pay for the hardware and labor. That someone is us in the form of higher fees to the ISPs. And when the kiddie pr0n is taken care of (like they could really ban a moving target), we'll also need to ban the sites with "hate speech" and other bad stuff, which will require even more money.

      The conduit is not the problem. Although cars on highways are the chosen method for distribution of illegal drugs in the U.S., neither highway departments nor auto companies have been required to ban such use. It is a problem for law enforcement, not the legislature. The dealers need to be shut down - not the highway.

    6. Re:ISP's As Carriers Notion Is Bogus by reallocate · · Score: 1

      Hurting child porn vesus hurting ISP revenue? Hmmm...now that's a tough one.

      Customers will end up paying for it, just as customers pay for every other piece of health, safety and security legislation related to the goods and services we buy.

      The "conduit" is not the problem, but it's part of the problem. If the Pennsylvania AG has a list of sites known to traffic in child porn, and presents it to ISPs, the ISPs can't claim that the gov't is asking them to look at every page before it's served. All they have to do is block traffic to and from specific addresses. If they disagree about the inclusion of some of the sites on the list, they can find lawyers and go to court.

      Noise from ISPs that they're trying to protect free speech rights -- especially considering their assertion that they're "carriers" and not content providers -- is just that: self serving revenue-driven noise.

      --
      -- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
    7. Re:ISP's As Carriers Notion Is Bogus by sjames · · Score: 1

      A few questions come to mind. Is Pennsylvania also requiring the long distance companies to block phone calls from Pennsylvania to the phone numbers associated with those sites?

      True the list does mean that they need not examine every page before serving, but they are being required to have their equipment 'look' at every request before it goes out. Given the layered nature of net protocols, that tremendously incerases the difficulty of serving up packets. If Pennsylvania REALLY thinks it's a worthwhile pursuit, shouldn't IT provide the hardware?

      Truthfully, an ISP is more of a common carrier than the phone company itself. In normal operation, an ISP simply accepts PPP packets from customer's machines, and routes them based on the destination address in the IP header. It also accepts incoming packets and routes them to customers based on the destination address in the IP header. At most, a typical ISP's router looks at the TCP or UDP port (firewall), but often, they don't. Unlike the phone company which has to set up an end to end virtual circuit, the ISP just has to shove the packets into a pipe. Many ISPs outsource the packet routing to a dialup provider, and just host radius, web, and mail services. In those cases, there's not even a place for them to add the layer 4 firewall.

      Meanwhile, the AG claims that if an ISP shares their configuration with others, they are guilty of disseminating child porn. The problem here is an issue of free speech. He claims that if I say 'www.example.com is child porn and should be shut down' then I am guilty of disseminating child porn (unless, of course, it turns out to be a page saying the site doesn't really exist).

      It's just another example of a government wanting unlimited power, zero public oversight, and pay for it with a hidden tax.

  99. Tom Ridge the missing link? by ShaggyZet · · Score: 1

    Yes, and this foolishness started when Governor Tom Ridge was still in Pennsylvania. Recognize the name? He's Directory of Homeland Security Tom Ridge now. Whether Bush is directly involved, this is the kind of thing that his administration supports.

  100. Reminds me of the "Index librorum prohibitorum" by Proudrooster · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is far from an original idea. The Pope and Roman Inquisition did the same thing back in the 1700's and 1800's. The Church published the "Index librorum prohibitorum" or "List of Prohibited Books".

    Once the list got out, nearly every book on it became a best seller and eventually the list itself was put on the "Index librorum prohibitorum". So the Catholics arrived at the same point. The Catholics maintained a secret list of prohibited books but wouldn't disclose what was on the list for fear of promoting that which was prohibited.

    Either this guy knows his history or it's a clear case of "There is nothing new under the Sun." I wonder if he also knows that in 1966 the Index was abolished. I suspect the list was abolished because the Catholics could no longer keep up with the volume of books being released and they had probably had their fill of p0rn too. So, if history does repeat itself, this list will fade away too. I just hope he doesn't start making claims that "heavy bodies fall faster than lighter bodies."

    No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

  101. Yada, Yada. So what are you going to do about it? by SmegTheLight · · Score: 1

    Well ?

    You have seen.
    You have decided.

    Now.. What are YOU going to do about it ?

    --
    Time travel is possible. We are quickly heading for 1984.
  102. Can't Believe Nobody's Leaked the List by serutan · · Score: 1

    Surely somebody who has seen this list is of a mind to post it somewhere anonymously... a programmer at Worldcom or one of the other ISPs, or someone in the AG's office?

    1. Re:Can't Believe Nobody's Leaked the List by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it was just posted here

      that's because the only way to enforce pa's mandate easily affects a lot more people than pa

      fuckers

  103. George Carlin by CrudPuppy · · Score: 1

    George Carlin needs a new routine to complement his "7 words you cannot say on TV and Radio" act.

    --
    A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
  104. Where's Flint? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where's Flint when we need him come help please :)

  105. Its bad because its not verifiable by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    Where does the filtering stop? And how will you know it has been extended into 'questionable' territory.

    True child porn is illegal and wrong, but if you cant at least review the site names, who is to stop them from blocking political sites too. You cant review the list so you will never know who was just squelched.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  106. My assumption would be this... by Kjella · · Score: 1

    a) Some sites are illegal under Pennsylvanian law, because they contain kiddie pr0n by their definition.
    b) Where those sites exist, they are either not kiddie pr0n or the local law enforcement couldn't really give a rats ass. Remember this doesn't have to be in Pennsylvania or the USA, which means they can't issue a takedown notice.
    c) To keep Pennsylvanian residents from being able to view said material, they force ISPs to block these sites instead.

    This has been a problem ever since the Internet was formed. Should Internet be a unified "cyberspace" or should there be "cyberboarders" with "cybercustoms" on every state line and national border, and only what is legal within that region may pass? Personally I feel they have the right to try, just as much as they have the right to try to stop people bringing physical kiddie pr0n tapes into the state. While the ISPs are the ones enforcing the block, the government is ultimately responsible for what is and is not blocked. I don't think you can go down to your local police station and see through their kiddie pr0n archive to verify that all the tapes they have confiscated, really is kiddie pr0n either...

    Kjella

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  107. So what sites ARE they? by freaksta · · Score: 0, Troll

    Hehehe

    --


    Hrrm... I usually just sign my name.
  108. And they thought I was paranoid by GiMP · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I live in Pennsylvania and I've been using an international proxy server for a while because I don't trust either my state or my federal government.

    Often, but not always, I use proxy servers to mask my location and avoid the possible censorship; especially while looking for information regarding the Iraq invasion. Aljezerra for one has blocked the USA at times from fully accessing their site. I would not doubt if my ISP or government has been censoring or monitoring the activities of their customers/citizens.

    Don't trust anyone.

    1. Re:And they thought I was paranoid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know for a fact that my isp does...


      ARN.NET in dallas does this

  109. I live in PA by CrazyJim0 · · Score: 1

    I can't access fark.com now.

    Fark.com is a political site, not a child pornography site.

    Maybe its not blocked, maybe its just down today.

  110. Maybe they should allow you to query by CrazyJim0 · · Score: 1

    If you query if a site is blocked, it should return a yes or no.

    In this way, they're not spreading porn.

  111. this is a good thing by dfj225 · · Score: 1

    If the system isn't abused, and only sites containing child pornogrophy are blocked, then I think that this is an excellent idea. Only good can come frome blocking these types of sites, which contain images that are already illegal.

    --
    SIGFAULT
  112. Why did not one of the ISP's by Archfeld · · Score: 1

    turn over the list ? If they were served, it is a public record and they are in no way bound to remain silent. I'd say there was some back room politics involved here...

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
    1. Re:Why did not one of the ISP's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      back rooms like wher most Child Porn is filmed

  113. But by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 1

    Replace "sites that have child porn" with "e-mail accounts that send spam" and all of a suddon it's something that most Slashdotters are gung-ho in supporting.

  114. What's wrong with this picture? by blair1q · · Score: 1

    Instead of block the sites, how about we

    enforce the goddamned law and shutting them down

  115. Traci Lords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most of Traci Lords' porn was made when she was under 18 and thus is "child porn", kiddie porn, etc. by definition and by legal determination - in fact.

    Many comments are along the lines of how disgusting kiddie porn is or how sick its viewers are. Do you think Traci Lords porn is sick or perverted or unappealing to normal males?

    Fact: much of what is legally kiddie porn is INDISTINGUISHABLE from regular porn.

    Opinion: Within a few years, any normal PC will be capable of generating photo realistic images of nude children doing whatever.

    Conclusion: Law enforcement activity needs to concentrate on actual children and use zeros and ones as possible evidence of a crime and not a crime in itself.

  116. Censorship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would be interesting to know what sites are blocked and what sites are not blocked. If non pornographic sites with information about pedophilia are blocked this could be CENSORSHIP. Here is such a site: www.fpc.net/sites/. Maybe somebody from the Pennsylvania area can tell us if this is blocked or not.

  117. Law enforcement by terrymr · · Score: 1

    There was an article on CNN, a few months back in the wake of the Pete Townsend arrest, which cited an unnamed FBI source as saying that 99% of all child porn being offered (online or otherwise) is being offered by law enforcement to catch people who seek it out. Will these sites be blocked by PA too ?

  118. Let's be done with it and blind everyone... by mpthompson · · Score: 1

    Like everyone else, I'm absolutely against child pornography. However, I am also against laws that are unenforceable or even worse, where an individual or business cannot reasonably avoid breaking the law.

    This law makes about as much sense as taking a law that says it is "illegal to walk on the grass" to the extreme that it is also "illegal to look at the grass". The only possible way to enforce such a law is to blind everyone.

    Likewise, the only way to ensure compliance with this law is to simply shut down all ISPs in Pennsylvania. After all, ISPs have no control over the actions of those at either end of a web transaction and monitoring all potential transactions for violations of the law is virtually impossible.

    I'm no lawyer and not familiar with the current status of ISPs, but I thought that it has generally been established that ISPs are to be regarded as "common carriers" and thus offered immunity from laws such as this. Obviously, Pennsylvania doesn't think so. Otherwise they would hold their regional phone companies to the same standard as the ISPs they connect to. It seems logical that a phone company would be just as culpable as an ISP in that the very same digitized bits of child pornography that traverse the ISP also traverses the phone companies DSL and phone lines? Sure, it would be horrendously expensive and inconvenient for the phone companies to monitor and stop the "bad bits", but it is technically possible.

  119. Re:Telling ISPs which sites to block is illegal to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    cause law enfrocement are excempt from the law if they have to do it as part of doing their job... [ie: a cop soliciting as a hooker cant be charged with it if it was t ocatch the jhons...]

  120. In related news by Istealmymusic · · Score: 1

    Owner of the Girls Gone Wild empire was arrested for reasons related to this article. A Good Thing, if you ask me.

    --
    "The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
  121. Don't worry by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 1

    Don't worry, it's just michael being knee-jerk about absolutely anything and posting whatever gobbledygook gets submitted.

    Pennsylvania could be banning child porn sites and michael would still be up in arms! Oh...damn. I have a question. Why would you trust policeman and the government to normally enforce the illegality of child porn and child abuse, yet not trust them to block child porn websites? In either case, you're trusting them to make the judgement call about what makes up child porn.

    But because its websites, we get nice and knee-jerk about it. "How dare they decide what is child porn and block websites without telling me! Oh--so they've been busting child porn rings and arresting offenders for years, and I've trusted them with doing that. But that's okay, because it doesn't involve some idealistic Slashdot movement to make absolutely everything available on the internet! How dare they block child porn websites, and even worse, not tell me what they are! Down with all child porn laws because I don't trust them to make the judgement call! Viva child porn!"

    Kind of disgusting in my view. But, hey. I'll probably get modded into oblivion, or some wannabe free speech lawyer will reply and start lecturing me about how "this sets a dangerous precedent" that "allows the government to decide what we can and cannot view." I'm sorry, but I don't want to view child porn! If you don't trust the government to decide what is child porn, why do you let them when it comes to standard child porn and abuse laws? Should civilians be enforcing all laws now because they don't trust whether or not the government can correctly judge what is illegal? Better not have faith in any policemen, detectives, or anyone else.

    But what do I know? I'm going against the mentality of michael and his minions here. I guess I'll head over to michael's RIAA piracy article and attempt to inject a little sanity over there now instead of "OMG!!1 RIAA IS SUING OVER ILLEGAL PIRACY! HOW DARE THEY!!1"

    From crackhead moderators who mod you down when they disagree with you, to vindictive editors who hound you into oblivion, it can be hard having a dissenting opinion on Slashdot!

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."
  122. MAAYYYBBBEEEE....... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Umm, so if there exists a list of known child-porn sites, why have they not been shut down?

    One possibility is that the sites on the list are sites that are border-line questionable. (perhaps fake child-porn for example?) That the government knows it can't get shut down through the legal system, so they do it this way.

    Or maybe they aren't child-porn sites at all! Maybe the government has hired an uberhacker named "Rat" to "hack the planet" and prevent anyone from finding out about the secret government plan to save the planet by riding a metal turd to the center of the earth and setting off a nuke (magically five nukes later). Don't worry about the fact that this is a Pennsylvania only law because the movie you're in already makes no sense!

  123. Child Pornography + PATRIOT ACT + Carnivore = Jail by Matrix272 · · Score: 1

    So if I read this article and some of this discussion, and I e-mail it to a friend who has kids, the FBI could find the term "Child Pornography", call me a terrorist and put me in jail? Ouch...

    --
    "It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
  124. Censorship by Alphtoo · · Score: 1

    In my view, there is nothing more obscene than censorship. Back in the late '60s or early '70s, the President of the US established a Congressional committee to study the issue. They could find no link between pornography and crime. This study and its findings were published in the Congressional Record. The President quickly swept it under the rug, as best he could, but the publishers of Zap Comics (popular underground comic books) got hold of it and published an illustrated version. It contained photographs to illustrate just about everything mentioned in the Congressional Record, along with the text, and yes, some of it was damn disgusting, but it made a point: the Committee viewed this same sort of stuff, and though they may have found it disgusting, they saw no harm in it. These dumbass politicians need to look for REAL problems to solve and quit sweating the small stuff. And parents need to keep a closer eye on their kids.

  125. is Pennsylvania... by ohzero · · Score: 1

    part of China now? or am I missing something? The one thing the story doesn't cover is exactly -who- in the office gets to decide what the kiddy porn sites are.

    --
    -- http://www.criticalassets.com
  126. Anybody work at a PA ISP? by clonebarkins · · Score: 1

    So, if somebody who reads slashdot is privy to this list, why not send it to cryptome.org or 2600? They'll publish it. If not, just post it anonymously to USENET or something. In fact, email the PA governor, PA legislators, and even your congresscritters with it so that they will be in violation of the law. Or post it to slashdot!

    --

    "The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it." -- Ayn Rand