Slashdot Mirror
FTC Takes Out Porn- and Botnet-Spewing ISP
coondoggie writes "The Federal Trade Commission today got a judge to effectively kill off the Internet service provider 3FN, which the agency said specialized in spam, porn, botnets, phishing, and all manner of malicious web content. The ISP's computer servers and other assets have been seized and will be sold by a court and the operation has been ordered give back $1.08 million to the FTC."
My heart overflows for this poor oppressed Botnet operator.
Supporting/controlling botnets I can understand, but where does serving up porn figure in the shutdown? I can't see how it did.
which the agency said specialized in spam, porn, botnets, phishing and all manner of malicious Web content
One of these things is not like the other
"FTC Takes Out Porn, Internet traffic slows to a trickle."
Not the TITTIES!
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
spam, porn, botnets, phishing
....
One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?
Did you guess which thing was not like the others?
Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong?
Found 'em.
Child porn will generally get you in trouble in just about every western jurisdiction. This is not news. This was not just a singular administrative action born in the middle of the night. This started over a year ago and was the culmination of a legal proceeding where they apparently proved that this entity was actively recruiting nefarious clients to host child porn and other illegal activities.
This one smacks more of sensationalist summary writing than of government censorship or unconstitutional takings.
If CP was not so regulated and forbidden, there would be a lot less children harmed in the making of it.
Huh? That argument flies with the War on Drugs because most drug addicts are consenting adults. How does it fly with something that requires sexual behavior on the part of those too young to consent to such activities?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
If so, it still seems eager to take my business:
http://www.webhostingstuff.com/company/3FNNET.html
L'esperienza de questa dolce vita (The experience of this sweet life) - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
Because think about it. If there is already free porn of it, why make even more of it for what is a fetish for a small amount of people. If it was free and unregulated it would fill the internet making it hard for people to turn a profit producing it on their own which would lead to any economic benefit being reduced or eliminated.
If you have an audience who wants something and there is no where else to get it (because it is illegal and actively destroyed) you can set a rather high price on it and run a business doing it. On the other hand, if there is so much free CP floating around because it isn't actively destroyed the few people with that fetish go to that and don't even bother to purchase CP destroying the economy of it.
There are lots of really, really strange fetishes out there but none are so financially successful as CP because of the presence of regulation. In order to fill the small number of people who like CP, more CP has to be produced because it isn't out there anymore which leads to more children being abused.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
If it was free and unregulated it would fill the internet making it hard for people to turn a profit producing it on their own which would lead to any economic benefit being reduced or eliminated.
Right. Just like how "regular" porn is unprofitable because the internet is already full of it.
because it is illegal and actively destroyed
Right. Because CP doesn't exist in digital form with multiple copies floating around the world, and is therefore easily destroyed when it's found.
if there is so much free CP floating around because it isn't actively destroyed the few people with that fetish go to that and don't even bother to purchase CP destroying the economy of it.
Right. Which is why nobody is producing "regular" porn anymore, since there's more than enough of it available to satisfy everyone already.
the only ground i would give on this issue is that some sanity should be employed as to what is considered "child porn"
1 father of a child has pictures of a non sexual nature OF SAID CHILD on his computer NOT PORN
2 parent of a child has pictures that include said child and possible other children (while not sexual) NOT PORN
3 Non parent has a bunch of pictures of children (with a number of them barely dressed) PORN
4 a set of pictures of a child in various poses (and clothing) being sold PORN
5 naked pics of a child PORN
6 obviously sexual pictures of a child PORN (with bonus charges)
the trick is Intent of the Collection
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Now, GOOD for the FTC, but where are the upstream / downstrem providers in this equasion? These guys where not operating from random DSL lines, SOMEONE sold them connectivity and KNEW what they were up to...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
...the original complaint lists "pornography featuring children, violence, bestiality, and incest" in one section, and every other mention of "pornography" is listed as "child pornography".
Even excluding the child pornography, reading the complaint, the pornography aspects of his business are not legitimate porn sites. He runs porn sites whose primary purpose is to catch search engine hits and direct them to sites containing malware, viruses, and fake anti-virus products (ransom anti-virus software, effectively). This is not a guy who runs a few woefully unethical businesses and then runs a legitimate pornography business on the side. Please don't confuse this for the shutdown of a pornography website, even the porn sites are just tools to infect unsuspecting visitors with hostile software.
Pretending this particular case is the law coming in and preventing you from looking at pornography is roughly akin to suggesting that Adolf Hitler was considered an enemy of the Allied powers because they didn't like his painting.
i would hope that the actual drives themselves are locked in some evidence warehouse in crates labeled with a case number since they will needed as evidence for when they hang^imprison these folks post trial.
so in short if they still have the files on them a number of somebodies need to lose their jobs (or you wont be getting the drives at all).
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
So you're okay with the woman who went to jail for trying to get a picture of her kids first bath developed?
Do you assume all nudity is sexual elsewhere too?