Thursday, 8 March 2018

State Lawmakers Want to Block Pornography at the Expense of Your Free Speech, Privacy, and Hard-Earned Cash

quote [ More than 15 state legislatures are considering the “Human Trafficking Prevention Act” (HTPA). But don’t let the name fool you: this bill would do nothing to address human trafficking. Instead, it would only threaten your free speech and privacy in a misguided attempt to block and tax online pornography. ]

Don't worry Canada, you're not being left out.
Here’s how we stop website blocking in Canada

Meanwhile...
Comcast Found 'Accidentally' Blocking Legitimate Sites — Including PayPal and Steam
[SFW] [Big Brother] [+4 WTF]
[by steele@6:33pmGMT]

Comments

Ankylosaur said @ 7:15pm GMT on 8th Mar
So they want mandatory installation of filters on every device and not at the ISP or higher level? Yeah, good luck with that.
steele said @ 8:31pm GMT on 8th Mar
I'm sure we'll meet somewhere in the middle of the right.
gendo666 said @ 10:53pm GMT on 8th Mar
The Canadian one is annoying to me.
But then so is the "tweet these organizations"
fuck yo twitter. I haven't used it before and I don't want to now.

I may be a Luddite but I don't care.

(Also VPN for the win.)
badbob said @ 2:24am GMT on 9th Mar
So if I wanted the free, wide open, yet sometimes ugly Internet as was originally intended, I'd have to pay $20+ x 6 so I can surf from my desktop, laptop, phone, tablet, game console, and Raspberry Pi. Now add in other devices in the home that I'm already far too paranoid to own especially after Alexa started randomly laughing at people. Sure, there shouldn't be blocked content coming through your Nest thermostat, smart outlet, or wireless garage door controller but as I've experienced with IT at work (Planets.Nu is a serious threat to office productivity while NFL.com and March Madness pools are not), it is a judgment call and it is not your judgment that matters.

Based on the video from their website regarding action taken if blocked content is let through, companies would lean far to the safe side. They would block anything that your great grand mother would consider sketchy to avoid bad PR from frequent patching or fighting a case in court from a single mother that thinks the Victoria's Secret catalog is too risqué for her 16 year old son to accidentally see on his phone even though she got a winter sale flier in her Sunday news paper three months ago. Ok, maybe newspapers are really dead and that's a non-issue.

If this law passes and makes porn a health crises issue (completely ignoring an actual ongoing health crises with opioid addiction) then how long until you apply it to other perceived health crises in the digital space such as video games, social media, or even fake news. Each would have to be its own filter with its own charge. Sounds like a great way for tech companies to boost profits without really adding any value. Maybe this is what brings back my newspaper!
gendo666 said @ 3:17am GMT on 9th Mar
I love the Florida bill that addresses porn as being bad but not unrestricted handguns.
mechanical contrivance said @ 2:20pm GMT on 9th Mar
2nd amendment.
zarathustra said @ 4:47am GMT on 9th Mar
This violates pretty much ever prong of the strict scrutiny standard applied to laws that impact the first amendment. I can't imagine it surviving a court challenge.
Fish said @ 12:47pm GMT on 9th Mar [Score:-2 Boring]
filtered comment under your threshold
Fish said @ 3:40am GMT on 9th Mar [Score:-5 Troll]
filtered comment under your threshold
Taxman said @ 11:28am GMT on 9th Mar [Score:-3 Informative]
filtered comment under your threshold

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