One of the ongoing debates in the Internet realm is who is responsible for content — the person who creates it and stores it and serves it up, or the person who enables it to be transmitted to your desk.
ISPs have long argued that they are simply common carriers — the mere conduits. They are no more responsible for the content that passes through their routers to your browser than the state Dept. of Transportation is responsible for what is driven up to your door by UPS, or the phone company is responsible for what words you hear over the phone.
It’s one thing if the ISP is notified of something problematic, but even there, it’s only really something they can do about if it’s content that they host, not something that is just tranmitted by them. They are, as Ken & Bob used to say, “Mere conduits.”
The Pennsylvania legislature had decided to simply dismiss that argument by fiat, by requiring ISPs block access to kiddie porn to all Pennsylvania residents. They don’t say how. They don’t even say why it’s the ISPs’ responsibility. They just say do it.
Bad law. Bad, bad law. No cookies (browser or otherwise) for you.
KP sites are notoriously difficult to track down and identify, because they are constantly changing their names and communicating how to get to them through various mechanisms. This law is not going to actually keep the sickos who seek out this stuff from finding it. It’s “feel-good” legislation that has some particularly threatening aspects to it.
Believe me — there are not many folks who would like to see KP stamped out more than I would. But this hasn’t a chance of doing anything of the sort — and it runs the risk of simply increasing folks’ (read: the government’s) ability to block other content that they think they can finesse around the First Amendment.
I totally agree while it sickens me to death to think of the whole KP thing (can’t even bring myself to write it out) I do agree with you on the law. I live in Pa and know that if they are allowed to do this then who is to say later on they will think of something else to ban that someone might not approve of. This is how the government works they sucker us in with the really bad stuff that we as normal people would say yea go for it then later on they slide in with the other things.