Subject: Cable giants bullied into new child porn censorship deal by the shadowy National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:12 pm
The major national cable providers are all to sign a troubling yet major censorship deal with a private anti-child porn organization. The deal would give the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) carte blanche power to issue a takedown of any customer's content hosted on a cable provider's servers.
The group will provide each cable company with a list of Web site addresses that they believe contain child porn. The cable companies will then, per the agreement, scrub the content from their servers.
A press release describing the agreement states that:
The cable operators that have agreed to execute the (memo of understanding) within 30 days include: Comcast Corporation; Cox Communications; Charter Communications; Cablevision Systems Corporation...Time Warner Cable has already signed the MOU.
It is unclear what, if any, notification cable customers will receive before their Web sites are deleted, or what legal rights they will have to appeal the classification of their content as illegal child pornography.
The memo of understanding states that the private group will provide cable companies with a list of kiddie porn URLs, that "in NCMEC's good faith" appears to meet the federal definition of child pornography.
According to Cynthia Brumfield, the industry watcher who first broke the story:
"The identified URLs and content will be deleted (by the cable company) and the operator will provide NCMEC the customer's name and address in those instances where that information is available. NCMEC will then work with law enforcement authorities."
Thus, we have a private third-party group, who will be given the power to force the takedown of content, who will be given the names and addresses of the "violators." Is there anything else?
Oh yes--NCMEC wants its participation in the takedown to be kept secret. Brumfield cites the memo of understanding (which is not public)--which she said states that cable companies will:
"remove or limit the availability of apparent child pornography images or other content based on the List, and in taking such action replaces the offending page with a notice, such notice shall contain no reference to NCMEC."
I hope i am not the only one who is extremely troubled by this deal. Kiddie porn used to be one of the three major trump cards justifying censorship, invasion of privacy, and the general evisceration of civil liberties (the other two trump cards being illegal drugs and terrorism). However, with this deal and the recently successful child porn justified efforts of the NY AG to eradicate Usenet discussion groups, child porn seems to have outgrown its two fellow trump cards.
The threat of kiddie porn now seems to be capable of justifying any amount of censorship--something that no CEO accountable to his shareholders will dare stand up to.
This kind of takedown power should not be given to a private, unaccountable group. Both the FBI and DHS/US Customs already manage databases of enabling their agents to digitally fingerprint such content. As much as I dislike the FBI, they are at least (occasionally) held accountable. Journalists can submit Freedom Of Information Act requests, and the heads of the agency can be hauled in front of a congressional committee. NCMEC, on the other hand, is not subject to an FOIA request.
Public challenge And so, I issue the following public challenge:
Comcast's anti-BitTorrent efforts were undone once the Associated Press was able to prove that the cable giant slowed down the file-sharing of a copy of the King James Bible.
Thus, I promise a bounty of 100 U.S. dollars to anyone who can somehow trick a cable company into taking down a copy of the King James Bible, under the mistaken belief that it's actually kiddie porn.
You may either work to trick the cable company directly, or instead go after the shadowy National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It is highly unlikely that cable companies will verify the URLs given to them by NCMEC, and so this may actually prove to be easier.
I am not encouraging anyone to break the law. I am sure this can be done with social engineering, and a bit of smarts. Finally, if you opt to donate your $100 award to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, I will match it 100 percent.
Subject: Idiotic NY AG Will Sue Comcast If They Don't Pretend To Fight Child Porn Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:46 pm
NY AG Will Sue Comcast If They Don't Pretend To Fight Child Porn
Hurry up and do absolutely nothing differently, or face the consequences....
New York AG Andrew Cuomo recently conducted a "sting" on broadband ISPs that consisted of discovering that Usenet is home to some horrible things (no, not TV show fan fiction). Under penalty of suit, the AG then got ISPs to agree to highly publicized deals that ISPs themselves admit don't have them doing anything differently. The deals seem aimed at providing good press for Cuomo, while allowing ISPs to justify their elimination of newsgroup services (AT&T now blocks the entire alt.binary hierarchy "for the children").
While Verizon, AT&T, AOL, Time Warner Cable and Sprint have all played along with Cuomo -- apparently Comcast has been ignoring the Attorney General's advances. In response, Cuomo is threatening legal action against Comcast, and has given the cable operator a five day ultimatum. While covering the story, the Associated Press (screen grab) made their FTP login information (and the letter) accessible for everyone to see (the password was quickly changed and the story edited). From a copy of the letter (pdf) from Cuomo to Comcast:
Comcast's unwillingness to sign the code of conduct and purge its system of child pornography puts Comcast at the back of the pack in the race to fight this scourge, and would likely be surprising to Comcast's millions of customers across the country. Time is of the essence here, as every day without these measures is another day that this illegal material is sluicing through the Internet.
Last week the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), of which Comcast is the primary driver, announced a "historic" agreement with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). But the letter claims this deal "fell well short" of Cuomo's code of conduct. That's ironic, considering neither agreement appears to actually accomplish anything.
Cuomo's push is worrisome because it nudges ISPs into the role of content nanny; a role that by law they weren't initially obligated to play (though some cases suggest otherwise). The existing legal framework already effectively targets child porn at the source, while ISPs already cooperate with law enforcement in taking such content offline when notified. Placing ISPs in the role of front line content cop increases the possibility of pressure for increased ISP filtering down the line (extremism, whistle-blowers, people who pick on Dick Cheney, etc.).
Subject: Cuomo strong-arms Comcast over Usenet images Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:16 am
Cuomo strong-arms Comcast over Usenet images
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has found a novel way to shake down law-abiding broadband companies: accuse them of harboring child pornography and threaten to prosecute them unless they do what he wants. That might just happen to involve writing Cuomo a hefty check.
The latest company to be honored by Cuomo's personal attentions is Comcast, which received a two-page letter on Monday threatening "legal action" on child pornography grounds within five days if its executives failed to agree to a certain set of rules devised by the attorney general.
In the letter, the Democratic politico says he wants Comcast and other broadband providers to "volunteer" to take actions "surgically directed" only at child pornography and "not at any protected content." He's targeting Usenet, the venerable pre-Web home of thousands of discussion groups that go by names like sci.math, rec.motorcycles, and comp.os.linux.admin.
That might be laudable if it were true. But Cuomo's ham-fisted pressure tactics already have led Time Warner Cable to pull the plug on some 100,000 Usenet discussion groups, including such hotbeds of illicit content as talk.politics and misc.activism.progressive. Verizon deleted presumably unlawful discussion groups including us.military, ny.politics, alt.society.labor-unions, and alt.politics.democrats. AT&T and Time Warner Cable have taken similar steps.
Cuomo's response: "I commend the companies that have stepped up today to embrace a new standard of responsibility, which should serve as a model for the entire industry." (By that standard of responsibility, an entire library should be burned down if a single obscene book happens to be found on its shelves.)
After that unqualified success in "surgical" targeting, Cuomo turned to AOL. On July 10, Cuomo lauded AOL for agreeing to "eliminate access to child porn newsgroups." What that press release didn't mention was that AOL actually had eliminated all Usenet newsgroups in January 2005.
What makes Cuomo's quixotic campaign doubly inexplicable is that Comcast doesn't actually run its own Usenet servers. It outsources that to a third-party provider called Giganews that's based in Austin, Texas.
Ronald Yokubatis, Giganews' chairman and a native Texan, said he couldn't grant a full interview by our deadline today. When we talked to him last month about the earlier stages of Cuomo's campaign, Yokubatis labeled it "fascist crap, ignorant" that came from "Demorats." He added: "We welcome the New York attorney general to the battle against child pornography."
Yokubatis did confirm on Tuesday that he has been contacted by and has had conversations with the New York attorney general's office.
Comcast is no slouch in the child porn fight: it helped to organize an industry-wide agreement last week with 45 attorneys general. But what was good enough for the National Association of Attorneys General was not good enough for New York; we're told Cuomo was one of the handful of officials to withhold his signature.
The odd thing about round three in Cuomo v. Usenet is that Comcast has a miniscule presence in the Empire State, which has been sewn up by rivals Verizon and Time Warner Cable. The company's own figures put its market share at a mere one-half of 1 percent of the state's broadband subscribers, and only because Comcast serves communities in Pennsylvania and Connecticut that spill across state borders.
What Cuomo wants the broadband providers to do is sign a so-called code of conduct, which has not been made public. This follows Cuomo's efforts to impose a code of conduct on student loan providers and home lenders (based on the theory that prosecutors, not his peers in the New York legislature, should be regulating businesses).
Unfortunately, what Cuomo is doing--sources say the attorney general himself is working the phones--is likely prohibited by the First Amendment. Governmental efforts at censorship must be narrowly focused, and censoring 100,000 newsgroups because 88 may have illegal images fails that test. Courts have ruled that if a government official delivers a credible threat of prosecution, the target may ask a judge to clear things up through what's called a declaratory judgment.
Like its rivals, Comcast seems unwilling to publicly confront a state attorney general, who would surely claim to be trying to protect the children. Spokesman Sena Fitzmaurice said Tuesday that Comcast's lawyers are evaluating Cuomo's request and the company may enter into an agreement with New York "substantially similar to the agreements they announced recently with AT&T and AOL."
That might be a good short-term response. But over time, it may encourage more attorneys general to play Net censor, especially if they come to view broadband providers as compliant, off-the-books sources of revenue. This seems to be Cuomo's opinion; his press release said that Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint will pay "$1.125 million to fund additional efforts by the Attorney General's office and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to remove child pornography from the Internet."
"It's a shakedown racket, pure and simple," says Jim Harper, a lawyer who is director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute. "These companies know that the New York attorney general can cause them millions in legal bills and PR damage, and they're paying for protection. 'Nice ISP you've got here. It'd be a shame if anything happened to it.'"
If a private-sector lawyer tried that, he might be prosecuted on extortion charges. But for New York's top prosecutor, it seems to be business as usual. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9997051-38.html
RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
Subject: Re: Cable giants bullied into new child porn censorship deal by the shadowy National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:22 am
Let's make that parasitical prosecutor an offer he can't refuse... :Mafia:
Subject: Re: Cable giants bullied into new child porn censorship deal by the shadowy National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:42 am
I'm in! What's his address?
Cable giants bullied into new child porn censorship deal by the shadowy National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)
Subject: Cable giants bullied into new child porn censorship deal by the shadowy National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) 
Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:12 pm
