Slashdot Mirror
EU Debates Installing a Black Box On Your Computer
bs0d3 writes "EU MEP Tiziano Motti (Italy), wants everything you do online to be logged and saved, for the sake of the children. Like a black box installed on every computer. He proposes an early warning system of criminal activity, specifically whenever an image of sexually abused children is detected, an alarm, goes to the authorities to be able to see who uploaded it. Tiziano Motti was a politician who just over a year ago managed to get a majority of European Members of Parliament to support the proposal to expand the data storage directive to Google searches. The purpose was to protect children from pedophiles — the same excuse he is using now. His proposal involves a technology called Logbox. And just as with an aircraft's black box, Logbox is installed on computers, laptops, smartphones, and e-readers because yes, all that can be connected to the internet."
Fuck you!
FTFA:
If it were China, North Korea or Saudi Arabia who had proposed this, what would we say then? It's scary in a democratic Europe to even hear a politician suggest such a thing. It is so absurd that I really hope we never have to discuss it seriously in Parliament.
-MEP Lars Christian Engstrom (Sweden)
The proposal claims to be based on users' rights and claims they are protected, that they should feel safe. He writes at the beginning that he did not want to create a new Big Brother Society. But then the whole document is about just that.
-Former Piratbyran founder and current telecomix hactivist Marcin de Kaminski
Like Members of Congress in the USA, EU MEPs come in all shapes, sizes, and states of sanity. This guy's just flying a kite, but any such law would apply the the MEPs too, and you can assume some of them have skeletons in their hard drives. Fuhgeddabouttit.
(this is not a
OK, this is Slashdot but 1 MEP suggests something, and it becomes "EU Debates Installing a Black Box On Your Computer". No one is debating anything !! (Unless TFA says more: it is currently Slashdotted.)
Never mind that, here's some statistics!
a) Most of the computers in the world are not involved in distribution of indecent images of minors.
b) Most of the incidents of sexual indecency with a minor are by members of the family, or close family friends.
Therefore, to have a greater chance of saving more children from sexual predators, we should ignore computers and break up all families. (Liberal use of the "~" marker here, folks).
Child exploitation, of all sorts, is very serious. However, this kind of outright idiocy on the part of policy makers is starting to make me physically ill. There are so many reason why this is an awful, awful idea, and I know I don't need to spell them out.
Why can't we have politicians who can think rationally?
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Both this Slashdot story and TFA have a very misleading title. ONE MEP is thinking about this insane idea. It is not even in Parliament for discussion. Another MEP already vehemently spoke against it.
Come on, ideas like these pop up and fizz out all the time. I bet there are other MEPs thinking about imprisoning gay people, reinstating a theocracy, establishing re-education centers, idolizing Hitler and Stalin, and so on and so forth. That doesn't mean any of these wacky ideas come through. There are no indications that this one will.
Plus, it is not technically feasible, even with deep packet inspection. To connect the dots, to know who uploaded what where, is far from trivial, especially if the bad scary pedophile uses non-standard ways of transmitting this data. For example, what if he uses zip files? Also, there is encryption, which totally defeats this "logbox".
This sig does not contain any SCO code.
1984 is not a manual for politicians.
Hitler is back, in Brussels,. But don't worry. What could possibly go wrong ?
One out of over seven hundred MEPs, one out of over seven hundred members of a body with very little real power within the EU, one man says something technologically illiterate and Slashdot runs for the hills for fear of Blackshirts and deathcamps?
Your post is absurd, absurd, hysterical and absurd. But thank you for keeping the world safe from totalitarianism. It's the thought (well, not thought, in this case... sentiment, perhaps) that counts....
P.S. Never, under any circumstances, watch C-SPAN. Your terror will know no bounds.
It's not about kids, it's about control (and media rights)
Stop thinking that this has anything to do with porn. Stop thinking that the promoters of such laws care at all about pedophilia and fighting it. If they really cared, they would listen to the policemen and non-profits fighting it that censorship would be counter-productive.
They just hate internet. It is the #2 media behind TV and is still gaining importance. They want to be able to control it. They want to be able to shut down websites. They need to tackle protests.
The plan is simple : first, put a mechanism to fight against pedophilia. Then extend it to fight terrorism. Then, using the vague definitions of terrorism, use these tools to squash any kind of protest, because disturbing traffic is akin to terrorism.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Such a contradiction in terms. Christianity is not democratic. When was the last time God ran for election?
worldmobilenet.com -- World Prepaid Wireless Internet plans
The people who actually molest kids are those with easy access to them. most cases of abuse are from moms, dads, stepmoms, aunts and uncles, sometimes even a teacher. They don't care if you monitor their computer because they don't need one to get what they're after. No amount of computer monitoring or demonizing things that are even tangentially related to kiddie porn will prevent or even slow down actual cases of actual abuse.
These laws are about removing people from society who don't have a "healthy" sexual attitude. That's why drawings are illegal in many places. Because it's not about reducing abuse, it's about people making themselves feel less uncomfortable about their own sexuality. In my own country, the people here are absolutely bat shit crazy when it comes to sexuality. They fear it, and they hate people who have a different attitude about it than they do. My generation is the first where simply being gay is not a crime. Hell at this point I can see things at the beach that would be illegal on my computer. There have even been people investigated for looking at porn of adults who are young looking. And if you let yourself get wrapped up in this paranoia you are helping no one and hurting everyone, including yourself.
And this needs to be said:
I would rather live in a world where occasional child abuse happens, than one where it never happens because we're all under constant surveillance.
Yep. Somebody needs to ask him why there aren't video cameras in politician's houses/offices so we can watch them and prevent corruption.
Lead us by example!
No sig today...
Why can't we have politicians who can think rationally?
They rationally play on people's irrational fears. Don't assume all politicians are drooling idiots, being a successful politician and a successful manipulator share many of the same traits.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Such a contradiction in terms. Christianity is not democratic. When was the last time God ran for election?
Is that you Lucifer?
Forgive me for being a bit rude, but I woke up to this article. Mr. Motti, considering the reputation your PM has been gathering I must say screw you.
I am at the point I am no longer phased by the phrase "think of the children". All of this to protect kids? Dear god, at this point you might as well just take all the kids away from their parents in the hospital and raise them completely isolated from adults. Maybe even other kids so they don't even know what kids look like to be turned on by them.
An image of a child being abused? I mean, obviously this guy has no clue about technology. Still, he did not research prior censorship attempts first? The whole Green Dam (or was it River) of China's blocking a website for showing too much skin was horribly broken. Should Europeans expect their equivalent of SWAT Teams to start charging in if they look up pig farming?
And... and... *double face palms and sighs* Why the hell are politicians so apt to look at 1984 and like books as guides rather than warnings?
by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?