AfterDawn: Tech news

U.S. Congress targets P2P porn

Written by Lasse Penttinen @ 13 Mar 2003 12:08 User comments (9)

It's amazing what dirt you can find on P2P networks, shared and distributed by people. In my opinion, this time the Congress is doing the right thing.
Pornographic material is protected by the copyright laws, just like any other artistic production. But some flavours of pornography are illegal by content - and just plain sick, if you ask me.

The U.S. Congress is targeting peer-to-peer networks again--and this time politicians aren't fretting over music and software piracy.

A pair of government reports scheduled to be released at a hearing on Thursday warn that file-swapping networks are exploding with pornography--much of which is legal, and some of which is not.

Searching for words such as "preteen," "underage" and "incest" on the Kazaa network resulted in a slew of images that qualify as child pornography, the General Accounting Office said in a 37-page report, one of two obtained by CNET News.com. The second report, prepared by staff from the House Government Reform Committee, concluded that current blocking technology has "no, or limited, ability to block access to pornography via file-sharing programs."




ZDNet.com

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9 user comments

113.3.2003 13:21

well, come now. i've seen porn on kazaa and direct connect that filter under "child" "incest" "teen" "britney spears" and its turned out to be two dudes enjoying the company of, well, two other dudes. anyway, the point is, a search criteria is useless. way too many false positives. they'd have to download and view the files and then objectively judge them. how am i to know as a user that something labeled incorrectly will land me in jail? how am i to know that she/he ISNT 18? some things are blatently illegal. go get rid of that... but there's a fine line they'd love to cross that -regardless of my taste- will interfere with my rights. they're working on some crazy bill where if anime (read:cartoons) appear underage, its illegal. uh? hello? if i draw a dog banging a giraffe, is that animal porn? no, its comedy. anyway rant over. i like porn. i like the internet. they are the same.

214.3.2003 06:47

true.. true... d@mn politicians.. wish they'd learn about technology..

315.3.2003 01:54
Waszir
Inactive

No Sh-t Sherlock! (As in Sherlock Holmes) How dumm are our leaders? VERY! If you want porn. It is easier to get than driving your car. iMesh, Kazaa, Yahoo..... Of course, war, violence, murder, corruption (KPMG are the experts here), terrorism and road rage and carnage, - NO PROBLEM! A La Carte' Sir! and would you like a red or white wine to go with the blood and human misery? Anyhow, sex is way over- rated. Skydiving is my thirst! (Guess Ashcroft will ban skydiving next. after securing Israel's destruction through murder and injustice to the Palestians, Iraqis...) Shields Up Bring back Columbia! Let's explore the Universe w/o politicians

415.3.2003 12:20
dcorrell
Inactive

Well if you want my two cents worth putting the government to work is not such a bad idea but in the case of US Congress going after porn that is a lot like letting the fox loose in the hen house. Maybe if we felt we could trust our legislators to do more than cater to hollywood's whims we might be more sympathetic, but that isn't happening. The part I don't get is just who or what granted any legislature the patents to moral authority anyway. Excuse my french if there are any choirboys present but the facts are far from the rhetoric. since I'm from Missourri I say show me! Until the collective legislatures of the free world begin to demonstrate moral leadership personally, I say that this is just a red herring to take our minds off the lousy economy and the war scare. Donald, Who really enjoys Afterdawn.

515.3.2003 17:03

This is yet another excuse to let the government try and stamp out P2P. I red an article on Zeropaid that the government was saying that P2P apps like Kazaa support terrorists and should be stopped. The only reason they are targeting the parents of children is because children are the biggest forces in P2P music and movie swapping and that the real fact is most 11 yr olds aren't concerned about downloading pictures of nakked people having sex. The utter thout of seeing two people kiss would make a child turn away. If a child even knew how to Download the DivX codec would be a miracle in the first place. I can tell most parents that they don't even need to be afraid of their child Downloading porn because they are too busy trading Music. Fact is Kazaa is too complicated for my 11 yr old niece to figure out. She has to ask me to Download and burn Music for her because she can't figure out even how to use MusicMatch jukebox to butn a CD. So most people Downloading Movies in the first place would be a 17 yr old person or older. Voodoohippi (Defender of Free cyberspace)

617.3.2003 06:36

now let me get this stright first a blow job isnt sex and our goverment has strightened that out for us ....now because of morral issuse the want to ban porn lets see the last time I looked America was the land of the "free" as long as we dont force our intentions on others ( like Iraq) and this is ok for CNN to air breaking photos of 911 for 2 months and pics of people getting exicuted like Dannail Pearl. the Media in the usa is so condisending its a joke who can show more with out getting fined like incuraging men to attack women at a rally for photos... or a night club that burns to the ground..... oh yeah he finally put down the camera at the end...... really our nation has a head fit everytime someone says nude naked or breast the next thing they are going to go after are amiture's home movies.... hell I wouldnt want my white shiny ass on video but if someone felt they had what it takes to look good on video "God" bless them . and the only ones the RIAA or after are the bible belt people who could care less if Kid Rock was getting his royalitis or not they just want thim to go away they are the sheep being lead to sloaghter .... if the bible tooting rule then just say its bad and they will lissen to the gov. but that type of thinking went out the door with gargolys on buildings and now more people are telling congress what they think.... p2ps will always be here and the only way they can stop it is to ....... thought Id tell them no way they are watching ........... have a nice day oh yeah by the way why isnt our government conserned about all those unpaid bills (food shipments to mother Russia) or Isearl or any other country why dont we just say if you dont follow us you now pay double the market value...... hard for anyone to argue with our country making money instead of giving away everything out of humanitarian aid... if we liberate you then we get paid back in what ever you got dates or oil which ever works..... just nothing from france it smells alittle spoiled......

717.3.2003 22:46
Donuts
Inactive

Get rid of porn? But our society encourages it. Take Christina Agulera for example, wearing so-called "minnimal clothing", acting sluty/doing those sluty dance moves and virtually saying "come fuck me, NOW!" There are lots of similar things. In my opinion, this is one of the things that imspires 12 year old boys to look for porn on the net. Why not ban that aswell? -Go try(Although certain things have been banned in Australia due to anonymous fuckers) As for the illegal porn, my suggestions are: -Target the supposed old sick ass men who do this. -Some kids whant thier own age. [think] Maybe prevent them finding out that this "genre" exists. Maybe the parents should get them in lots of trouble(and I mean heaps) only if they find out it was Illegal.

818.3.2003 00:07
Waszir
Inactive

As a theatre owner in Pakistan noticed, by showing porn movies, the youth with their raging hormones and anger are disarmed, their energies dissipated. Otherwise they are out there making trouble and destroying property... Sounds like the difference between Clinton and Bush. Which do you prefer the President getting it in Monica or murdering thousands in Iraq for $200billion? Personally skydiving and poetry are my drives... and the adventure of space. ...but when I have that need... and I feel I'm going totally nuts... It's WWW...all the way...

919.3.2003 22:52
Donuts
Inactive

Smart, Waszir. But the part about Bush murdering people in Iraq, I disagree. Yeah there's gonna be collaterral damage, which I'm 100% agaisn't. But acorrding to the Australian media, aside from banned weapons of mass distruction in Sadam's possesion, he violates human rights a lot. I find this most disturbing, seeing people interviewed on TV, eg. When a man fled Iraq, they came after his wife and kids and tortured them. eg2. An Iraqi grave robber claims to have found a mass grave containing at least 150 bodies in the country. So why oppose war when there's no other way out?

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