[Talk] McCain the Enforcer (fwd)

[talk@flux.org]

[I'm no fan of pornography, but these ideas are beyond misguided]

http://news.com.com/SenatorIllegalimagesmustbereported/2100-1028_3-6142332.html?tag=nefd.lede
or, http://tinyurl.com/yz29su

Senator: Illegal images must be reported

John McCain proposes law to force Web sites to report unlawful activity and 
delete posts by sex offenders.
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Last modified: December 11, 2006, 3:25 PM PST

Millions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs would be required to 
report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up 
to $300,000, if a new proposal in the U.S. Senate came into law.

The legislation, drafted by Sen. John McCain and obtained by CNET 
News.com, would also require Web sites that offer user profiles to delete 
pages posted by sex offenders.

In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, the Arizona Republican and 
former presidential candidate warned that "technology has contributed to 
the greater distribution and availability, and, some believe, desire for 
child pornography." McCain scored 31 of 100 points on a News.com 2006 
election guide scoring technology-related votes.

After child pornography or some forms of "obscenity" are found and 
reported, the Web site must retain any "information relating to the facts 
or circumstances" of the incident for at least six months. Webmasters 
would be immune from civil and criminal liability if they followed the 
specified procedures exactly.

McCain's proposal, called the "Stop the Online Exploitation of Our 
Children Act" (click for PDF), requires that reports be submitted to the 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which in turn will 
forward them to the relevant police agency. (The organization received 
$32.6 million in tax dollars in 2005, according to its financial 
disclosure documents.)

Internet service providers already must follow those reporting 
requirements. But McCain's proposal is liable to be controversial because 
it levies the same regulatory scheme--and even stiffer penalties--on even 
individual bloggers who offer discussion areas on their Web sites.

"I am concerned that there is a slippery slope here," said Kevin Bankston, 
an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. 
"Once you start creating categories of industries that must report 
suspicious or criminal behavior, when does that stop?"

According to the proposed legislation, these types of individuals or 
businesses would be required to file reports: any Web site with a message 
board; any chat room; any social-networking site; any e-mail service; any 
instant-messaging service; any Internet content hosting service; any 
domain name registration service; any Internet search service; any 
electronic communication service; and any image or video-sharing service.

Kate Dean of the U.S. Internet Service Provider Association said her 
members appreciated McCain's efforts to rewrite the current procedures for 
reporting illegal images, which currently are less than clear.

McCain's proposal comes as concern about protecting children online has 
reached nearly a fever pitch in Washington. Attorney General Alberto 
Gonzales gave two speeches recently on the topic, including one on Friday 
in which he said "we must do all that we can to protect our children from 
these cowardly villains who hide in the shadows of the Internet."

But the reporting rules could prove problematic for individuals and 
smaller Web sites because the definitions of child pornography have become 
relatively broad.

The U.S. Justice Department, for instance, indicted an Alabama man named 
Jeff Pierson last week on child pornography charges because he took 
modeling photographs of clothed minors with their parents' consent. The 
images were overly "provocative," a prosecutor claimed.

Deleting sex offenders' posts

The other section of McCain's legislation targets convicted sex offenders. 
It would create a federal registry of "any e-mail address, instant-message 
address, or other similar Internet identifier" they use, and punish sex 
offenders with up to 10 years in prison if they don't supply it.

Then, any social-networking site must take "effective measures" to remove 
any Web page that's "associated" with a sex offender.

Because "social-networking site" isn't defined, it could encompass far 
more than just MySpace.com, Friendster and similar sites. The list could 
include: Slashdot, which permits public profiles; Amazon.com, which 
permits author profiles and personal lists; and blogs like RedState.com 
that show public profiles. In addition, media companies like News.com 
publisher CNET Networks permit users to create profiles of favorite games, 
gadgets and music.

"This constitutionally dubious proposal is being made apparently mostly 
based on fear or political considerations rather than on the facts," said 
EFF's Bankston. Studies by the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
Children show the online sexual solicitation of minors has dropped in the 
past five years, despite the growth of social-networking services, he 
said.

A McCain aide, who did not want to be identified by name, said on Friday 
that the measure was targeted at any Web site that "you'd have to join up 
or become a member of to use." No payment would be necessary to qualify, 
the aide added.

In this political climate, members of Congress may not worry much about 
precise definitions. Another bill also vaguely targeting social-networking 
sites was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in a 410-15 vote.

And in July, for instance, Congress overwhelmingly approved a bill that 
made it a federal felony for Webmasters to use innocent words like 
"Barbie" or "Furby" to trick minors into visiting their sites and viewing 
sexually explicit material.

Next year, Gonzales and the FBI are expected to resume their push for 
mandatory data retention, which will force Internet service providers to 
keep records on what their customers are doing online. An aide to Rep. 
Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, said Friday that she's planning to 
introduce such legislation when the new Congress convenes.

Cathy Milhoan, an FBI spokeswoman, said on Friday that the FBI "continues 
to support data retention. We see it as crucial in advancing our cyber 
investigations to include online sexual exploitation of children."

In addition, Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and McCain said that 
they'll introduce similar legislation dealing with sex offenders and 
social-networking sites in January.

CNET News.com's Anne Broache contributed to this report