Slashdot Mirror
34 ISPs Subpoenaed By U.S. Government
seanonymous writes "The Justice Department, in their continued effort to revive questionable legislation, has subpoenaed dozens of ISPs for files. Considering that ISPs generally host their users' mail, this seems like it could be a larger issue than their fight with Google over search queries. Some, like Verizon, even resisted the call for information." From the article: "Representatives for McAfee and Symantec confirmed that the companies had received and complied with the subpoenas. A spokeswoman at LookSmart did not immediately return a phone call. Many of the subpoenas asked for information related to products that can be used to filter out adult content for underage Internet users. Symantec's subpoena, dated June 29, asked for a wide range of information about the price and popularity of the Internet filtering products it sells and how the products are used by customers. " Information Week has a number of the documents involved, including the letter of objection from Verizon.
I've been using commercial ISPs for at least eight years now (since my free school-provided dialup went away), and I have never used any of my ISP's mail services. Heck, with the last two, I never even bothered to activate my email account with them. I don't want their fluff, I don't want their "added services", I just want their pipe. So now I see that was a good decision :)
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
Except that that's rarely how it works. Historicaly, tyrannies come to power not by using the threat of external powers to scare their citizens, but rather by claiming to be "looking out for the people". Why? Simply because it's much easier to take away people rights on the guise of tolerance, political correctness, and assisting the poor, than it is by creating an external enemy. People will hapilly cooperate in their own downfall as long as you can convince them that your actions are meant to help the downtrodden.
:p
And that's why Democrats scare me