Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Congress: We Want Our Porn Labeled and Our Data Retained

Yeah,? Well, people in Hell want ice water.

But really, the issues here are innumerable.

Timothy B. Lee writes on ARS Technica:

Republicans in Congress, still licking their wounds from November's losses, have unveiled a "law and order agenda" that they hope will prove more popular with voters than their 2006 campaigns. One of the bills introduced as part of the package, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), resurrects two proposals that have been strongly opposed by civil liberties groups.

Following the Congress's tradition of giving bills patronizing acronyms, the legislation is titled the Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act—"Internet SAFETY" for short. Like the 2006 SAFETY Act introduced by Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ), the legislation requires the creators of commercial websites to include a warning if a site contains "sexually explicit material."

Civil liberties groups have raised free speech concerns about such proposals in the past. The official definition of "sexually explicit material" would appear to include non-pornographic sexual education materials. There's also ambiguity in the requirement that there be no "sexually explicit material" in the part of a website that is "initially viewable." That may simply refer to a site's homepage, but with deep linking, any content on a website can be the first content a visitor might see. Such ambiguity is troubling when the penalty for getting it wrong is up to five years in prison.

Also tucked away in this year's version of the SAFETY Act is an item from the FBI's wish list. The bill requires that e-mail and Internet service providers retain records about their customers' online activities for use in law enforcement activities. Failure to comply with regulations issued by the attorney general will get you a year in the slammer.

posted by Fergie @ 2/09/2007 05:04:00 PM