P2P-Zone - ISPs held liable for kiddie porn?

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ISPs held liable for kiddie porn?

http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2002/...orn/index.html

Quote:

Starting next month, Internet service providers with customers in Pennsylvania will be legally responsible for blocking access to child pornography.

The law, with maximum penalties including prison time for repeat offenders, is believed to be the first of its kind.

But by putting the onus on the state attorney general's office to notify ISPs of what should be blocked, the law is expected to have limited success.

I realize this isn't P2P related in a technical sense; but i think it hits a bone in other ways.

if we want to do what we do (the free and unrestricted transfer of files); then child porn is an easy and obvious moral, ethical, and political issue of the file trading community.

any setup that is truly decentralized (gnutella; freenet) gets slagged as "kiddie porn central." but any centralized network can get shut down by laws protecting copyright. i know that people wanting to download the latest album or software does not want to be associated with child porn. but politically; isn't this the way it's going to end up?

gov'ts have used the protection of children as an excuse to control or outlaw that which they fear. from alcohol to comic books, cigarettes to tv, children have been pawns in that game for decades. i don't see why p2ps will be different. it's up to us to fight for the right to continue to use them, even if some people can abuse them in a most disturbing way. banning access to port 1214 (etc) because it might transfer porn is like welding all mailboxes shut because they can be used to send and receive it too.

- js.