House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites

[EmporerEJ]

Here we go again:

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.

That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection.

Before the House vote, which was a lopsided 409 to 2, Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) held a press conference on Capitol Hill with John Walsh, the host of America's Most Wanted and Ernie Allen, head of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Allen said the legislation--called the Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act, or SAFE Act--will "ensure better reporting, investigation, and prosecution of those who use the Internet to distribute images of illegal child pornography."

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Read the entire story here:

http://www.news.com/House-vote-on-illegal-images-sweeps-in-Wi-Fi%2C-Web-sites/8301-13578_3-9829759-38.html?part=dht

[RawAlex]

Another one of those "entertaining lack of understanding of technology". 99.9999999% of all wireless access points have no clear ability to monitor traffic or otherwise examine what images a person would be accessing while connected to the access point. Very few companies actively cache and retain your entire surfing habit, and in fact it would likely compromise security or retain things like usernames and passwords, making the environment risky to use. It would potentially even make personal information available or stored on some cache system without permission (cue the long ass privacy policy that nobody would ever see).

Judging by the way the house passed this, it would be a "we are doing something about CP" type legislation for all of the members to crow about at the next election.

[Greg B]

Right on Alex.

That's exactly what it is. It's also a bs excuse to invade and confiscate and accuse. It's a vindictive based bit of legislation another draconian attempt to make anyone they want to shut up.

[EmporerEJ]

Last time we did this, we found out we had a senator that liked little boys....

Wonder what will "pop-up" this time?

[Paul Markham]

Another one of those "entertaining lack of understanding of technology".

It's amazing how little these people understand how these things work. Even if you store the information you have to then view it. Or is it one of those laws that if you do nothing you are not liable?

[RawAlex]

It's amazing how little these people understand how these things work. Even if you store the information you have to then view it. Or is it one of those laws that if you do nothing you are not liable?

it is exactly "if you do nothing you are liable". Yet interestingly, if you were caching the pages (for review by your security people that you would be forced to hire) you would end up potentially storing the very illegal material they seek to get rid of, which would in a sense make your security people break the law.

It is the first attempt to render a common carrier (technically an open Wi-Fi connection or a pay per connect Wi-Fi is a common carrier) liable for the material their end users choose to view. it is a rare occasion where the slippery slope is all too obvious.

Another stupid anti-CP law that won't stand up to basic existing legal precedents.

[Greg B]

Exactly Alex. We spent most of the day in discussion on the legal teams. No one could believe the House passing this idiotic piece of crap. It shows sloppiness and ignorance on their part and as legislators they should have known better.

[KevinG]

Nothing new to add except I agree with everyone.

This is colossally stupid and perfectly demonstrates how the lawmakers know ZERO about how the internet and technology works, are hypocritical and only going for the cheap, shallow publicity stunt on how they are saving the poor innocent little children.

Moronic assholes.