California Cybercafe Regulation Decision Released

The Importance of writes "The California Court of Appeals decided an important cybercafe regulation case last week. Read the decision [PDF]. The court decided that cybercafes are deserving of First Amendment protection. and that the zoning regulations used to regulate them in the City of Garden Grove were unconstitutional. However, in a terrible privacy decision, the court said video monitoring of the computers and patrons was a-ok. Read more on the decision here and here."

Comments

I work at a cyber cafe

[Mellzah]

We try to keep it a family environment there (I know, I know, headshots might not be what some consider great for a family, but whatever). All it really takes for our business to fail is one little kid to tell their parents they saw someone looking at porn, or one parent to see it for themselves. Word of mouth would kill us. If we couldn't remotely view customer's screens, this would have happened already.

It's not something we abuse, it's a tool for us to maintain our business. Signs are posted, informing customers that we can monitor what they are doing, and we also inform first time customers of our policy. So if Mr. A hears and sees all of these warnings, and proceeds to view transgender pornography, I would say at that point it's no longer a privacy issue--if he had wanted to keep his preferences private, he would not have chosen a public venue to satisfy them. Especially considering the warnings he's been given!

I do understand that there is potential for abuse when monitoring customers, and therefore an invasion of privacy. However, with my job and business at stake, I can only applaud this decision.

Re:I work at a cyber cafe

[chill]

...they saw someone looking at porn, or one parent to see it for themselves.

How about positioning the monitors where people other than the user can't see them? I can't find the link, but remember reading about Cyber Cafes in China.

To be legal, the screens have to be turned in, where everyone can see what you're doing. The *popular* places take their chances and turn all the monitors towards the wall, with little cardboard slats on the side creating a private environment.

And, just for curiosity, how do you do the remote viewing? Software or hardware? (I.E. -- a KVM hooked to all monitors or something like VNC or NetMeeting?)

-Charles Hill

Re:I work at a cyber cafe

[Mellzah]

It is an interesting idea, but I don't think it could be successfully applied at our establishment.

When I lived in Taiwan, I frequented a lot of cafes--ones that were primarily for the internet offered each patron a private cubicle. Game-based cafes were much more open.

I work at a primarily game-based cafe. Part of the energy that is generated by players at our tournaments would be stifled if everyone were separated.I suppose it would be possible to offer a row of private, internet only cubes, but honestly, I don't see it happening. Providing a 'spank tank' of sorts would still be counter-conducive to the family environment we wish to create.

As for your other question, our remote view capability is software based. We use SmartLaunch, which has a built-in monitoring tool, which basically takes a screenshot of every machine hooked into the SmartLaunch network. We have no way of monitoring customers that come in with their own laptops and hook in on our Wi-Fi...so I guess if you want privacy, there's your answer.

Re:Do the cafes *cause* crime?

[rworne]

They certainly can. That is if you consider shooting the patrons a crime.

There have been several instances of violence at Cyber Cafe's, mainly from playing on-line shooting games.

One instance that happened here at a local cafe:

Cafe A is at one physical address, Cafe B at another.
Player at A frags player at B.
Player B gets P.O.'d and sees who owns the IP address of the other player.
Player B then looks up who owns the domain, and finds Cafe A's address.
Player B drives to Cafe A and asks manager where player "A" is.
Player B lies in wait in the parking lot and frags Player A (for real) when he leaves.

--
The Constitution and laws of the United States forbid all interference with the religious or political concerns of other nations.

U.S. President Millard Fillmore to the Emperor of Japan, 1852

RTFA: the cameras are MANDATORY

[frankie]

Note: This article is a dupe, and the original version had a much more informative blurb:

"A California appellate court has upheld, 2-1, a Garden Grove, California ordinance requiring so-called 'cyber cafes' to impose a curfew, hire security guards, and install video surveillance cameras capable of identifying patrons. The opinion is a must-read; the dissenting judge called the law 'Orwellian,' and pointed out that 'even the government of Malaysia' was 'too ashamed to enforce' a similar proposal." It appears that the ordinances were enacted in part due to crime involving "gang activity" and to curtail school-children from using the facilities during school hours (unless accompanied by a guardian).

So to everyone who's saying "so what? my shop, my rules" : NO. Your shop, Government rules. This is a literal Big Brother situation.

Why Asian gangs abuse cybercafes?

[peter303]

I think it is an interesting question to ask why Vietanmese youth gangs have latched onto cybercafes as places to meet and get into trouble. Thats not a typical gang venue.

Background: Garden Grove, Orange County, California has the highest concentration of Vietnamese immigrants in the USA, with the Silicon Valley area second place. Garden Grove is above 1/3 Viet, 1/3 Hispanic and 1/4 Anglo. Ethnic groups in the US has often have disaffected youth groups to socialize and/or make easy money.

Cybercafes havent really caught on with Anglo youth because they access at home and school. Cybercafes are quite popular in most non-US countries, perhaps due to the lesser InterNet availability in the school and home. Parents probably sanction these as places for kids to hang out because they seem "educational" and not as naughty as bars, malls or ordinary cafes.

So I guess the youth in Garden Grove starting socializing in cybercafes. More opened in each strip mall to fuel the popularity. Then they became "teritories". Then they became places of making easy money by either computer scamming or other means. It takes a fair amount of money to equip a cycbercafe, so these become big-cash businesses of interest in themselves.

Re:Why Asian gangs abuse cybercafes?

[FreshFunk510]

I seem to have a completely different perspective.

First of all, you have to know the history. Vietnamese "youth gangs" didn't suddenly say, "Hey, let's meet up at Cybercafe X for our next gang meeting". You have to live in cities like Garden Grove to understand the reality.

The first question one should ask is what a "gang" really is. Many white suburban area police have been quick to identify groups of male asian youth as gangs. Today, I think that term might be properly applied, but when places like this started sprouting up 4 or 5 years ago I felt that the majority of kids hanging out were unfairly labeled gangs. In fact the only difference between these groups and groups of lan-gamers were the way they dressed (and may some other bad habits like smoking but, as you all know, "gang members" aren't the only ones who break rules).

To me a gang represents a group of individuals who partakes in breaking the law as a group. I think it's incorrect to make this blanket accusation amongst all the asian kids that hang out at cybercafes.

This has noting to do with immigrants who don't have computers and to say that this has no caught on with "anglo youth" because they have access at home and school is ludicrous (if not racist). Parents do NOT sanction tehse places because they seem educational. I dont' know where you got that from. Whenever my parents see places like this they complain about how kids go there to be around bad influences while their parents work hard to make a living income. Any parents with common sense say the same. The truth is these kids probably lie to their parents about where they are (much like I did in high school but in a less harmful way).

Re:Read the ruling

[strobexii]

You know what is damn scary?

A 20-year-old man dies in a Garden Grove parking lot after having a screwdriver smashed through his skull. That's scary. My friend gets followed in his car from a cafe and shot at a traffic light. That's scary.

In these cafes, you have a junior high school students sitting across from gang members. The customers have shown they cannot regulate themselves, the businesses have refused to regulate them, so, unfortunately, it has become the government's task.

Besides, if privacy is the foremost concern in your mind (more important than say, the lives of children), just go somewhere other than a public internet cafe. The choice is yours.

Agents Provocateur

[handy_vandal]

Nothing increases the reported incidences of crime like noticing it.

That, and planting agents provocateur to instigate more crimes.

-kgj