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SCO Chair's Anti-Porn Act Advances In Utah
iptables -A FORWARD writes "Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. of Utah reportedly plans to sign a resolution urging Congress to enact the Internet Community Ports Act. The ICPA proposes that online content be divided by port, rather like TVs have channels with adult and family content, so that certain internet ports will be 'clean' — so-called Community Ports — and others will be 'dirty.' Thus, they hope to remove objectionable content from port 80 and require that it be moved elsewhere (port 666 was already taken by Doom, sorry), so that people could more easily block objectionable content, or have their ISPs do the blocking for them. This concept is being pushed by the CP80 group, which is chaired by Ralph Yarro, who also chairs the SCO Group. That probably explains why they didn't choose to adopt RFC 3514, instead."
In meatspace, we already have constraints on distribution channels for so-called "adult" material. I can send my kid to Toys R Us and know that he won't find porn. (I think that there are lots of problems with the junk sold there, but porn is not one of them.)
Why not also provide a mechanism for segregating content? The link to the RFC was simply silly. People who own this "adult" content want to make money from it, and they can be held accountable, unlike the idiots who pseudo-anonymously hack systems.
It's not censorship, it's segregation. This is normative in meatspace, why should it be different in cyberspace?
As a parent, I like the idea that I could install a port blocker at home and block the majority of porn content. I already have a content filter in place that blocks access to pages based on content (porn, violence, etc) and if something like this can make filtering content easier, without significantly restricting access to those people who want that content, what's the big deal?
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
I recently spent the weekend at a resort in UTAH. I was shocked to find that the local NBC affiliate does not carry Saturday Night Live. You may say to yourself: Self, What does that have to do with that crazy Mormon cult? Well you'll be shocked to find out that the Mormon Church owns Bonneville Communications which owns the NBC affiliate. They find that SNL is too racy for a Utah audience and choose not to air it.
A little south to BYU and you'll find the Mormon media gestapo at work. Youtube is blocked from the university's firewalls not to mention several other sites.. MTV is banned on and off campus for BYU students. It's like China within our own boarders!
It appears the majority of Utards don't mind that a cult controls what can be seen or heard in Utah. Stand up and be heard people!