Friday, June 13, 2008
« America - the 500 year flood and the foo... | Main | 'WOODY GUTHRIE Bday Hoot'- 7/12, Colony... »
Time Warner kills Usenet Newsgroups
The news is better, and worse, than early coverage suggested.

It's worse in that although New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo found
child porn on just 88 Usenet newsgroups, the ISPs are pulling the plug
on tens of thousands as a response. This is a little like burning down a
library because you don't like one book in it.

Here's an excerpt from our coverage:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9964895-38.html
Time Warner Cable said it will cease to offer customers access to any
Usenet newsgroups, a decision that will affect customers nationwide.
Sprint said it would no longer offer any of the tens of thousands of
alt.* Usenet newsgroups. Verizon's plan is to eliminate some "fairly
broad newsgroup areas."

It's better in that the actual statement from Cuomo doesn't talk about
Web blocking of, say, overseas Web sites (something that Verizon, for
instance, strenuously denies it is doing and raises questions about
multiple-hostnames-per-IP-address and deep packet inspection). It merely
talks about the broadband providers agreeing to "purge their servers of
child porn websites."

Which is something they already do.

The interesting thing is that Cuomo did this through strong-arm tactics,
rather than working with the legislature to enact a law, the usual
process. I guess he's taken lessons from his predecessor and has
probably read this court opinion:
http://www.cdt.org/speech/pennwebblock/20040910memorandum.pdf

-Declan

NetHappenings Mailing List
Friday, June 13, 2008 8:26:19 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)    Disclaimer  |   |  Related posts:
Fair Use The Google Scholar service has been extended so that users can choose to search legal opinions and journals for information that they need.
Tweet Black Friday Deals
How do you Upgrade Planet Earth by Marcus Ranum
Microsoft's Bing search engine has a vulnerability with its cash-back promotion, which impacts both merchants and customers.
Barak Obama's half brother is Jewish
Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad.