Re: Congress may require ISPs to block fraud sites H.R.3817

[Steven Bellovin <smb () cs columbia edu>]

On Nov 5, 2009, at 7:44 PM, Richard Bennett wrote:

> I think the idea is for the government to create an official  
> blacklist of the offending sites, and for ISPs to consult it before  
> routing a packet to the fraud site. The common implementation would  
> be an ACL on the ISPs border router. The Congress doesn't yet  
> understand the distinction between ISPs and transit providers, of  
> course, and typically says that proposed ISP regulations (including  
> the net neutrality regulations) apply only to consumer-facing  
> service providers.
>
> If this measure passes, you can expect expansion of blocking  
> mandates for rogue sites of other kinds, such as kiddie porn and  
> DMCA scofflaws.
It's worth looking at hhttp://www.cdt.org/speech/pennwebblock/ -- a  
Federal court struck down a law requiring web site blocking because of  
child pornography.

                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb