State and federal government entities are getting more power to order web sites be blocked (because they carry kiddie porn, for example).
But a surprising number of web hosts map out multiple domains to the same IP address, meaning that blocking one blocks them all, according to a new Harvard study.
Edelman’s study says the practice of Web sites sharing IP addresses is so commonplace that blocking raises free-speech problems. His data show, for instance, that Yahoo hosts 74,000 Web sites at one address; Tucows.com uses one address for 68,000 domains; and Namezero.com points 56,000 domains to one address. “More than 85 percent of active domain names are found to share their Web servers with one or more additional domains,” the study says.
In other words, it’s sort of like saying that because someone in a particular town is doing something wrong, the whole town should be quarantined.
Swell.