Declan McCullagh reports on how the deal the NY Attorney General made with several big internet providers to curb access to child porn is killing usenet:
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday that Verizon Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint would “shut down major sources of online child pornography.”
What Cuomo didn’t say is that his agreement with broadband providers means that they will broadly curb customers’ access to Usenet–the venerable pre-Web home of some 100,000 discussion groups, only a handful of which contain illegal material.
Time Warner Cable said it will cease to offer customers access to any Usenet newsgroups, a decision that will affect customers nationwide. Sprint said it would no longer offer any of the tens of thousands of alt.* Usenet newsgroups. Verizon’s plan is to eliminate some “fairly broad newsgroup areas.”
Usenet is vulnerable to these sort of pressures because it’s a minority interest, and especially at the larger providers a cost centre rather than a profit centre. Few people select their ISP on whether or not they carry Usenet and those who do care about it still can find other ways of getting it. For larger, commercial providers these sort of pressures are therefore not unwelcome, as they provide an excuse to cut costs. Today it’s Usenet, tomorrow it might be IRC or another less used protocol.
Palau
June 13, 2008 at 7:43 amThis is what internet libertarians of all political stripes have been warning of just about forever: the stealthy corporate policing of free speech hidden behind the stalking horse of the public’s welfare. All that has to be said is “Think of the little kiddies, people!” and everybody capitulates.
Question is, what can be done about it and who will?