Re: Utah governor signs Net-porn bill

["Kevin Oberman" <oberman () es net>]

> Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 12:19:40 -0500
> From: Jared Mauch <jared () puck nether net>
> Sender: owner-nanog () merit edu
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 22, 2005 at 09:03:17AM -0800, Roy wrote:
> > CNET's extract is wrong.
> >
> > The article states
> >
> > The measure, SB 260, says: "Upon request by a consumer, a service 
> > provider may not transmit material from a content provider site listed 
> > on the adult content registry."
> >
> > Its entirely voluntary on the part of the consumer. 
>
>       The question is is it required to be affordable?
>
>       "Yes, we offer a pr0n-free internet access for a service
> fee of $9.95/packet".
>
>       I remember at a previous job trying to bypass one of
> these filters to determine how easy it would be (during the eval,
> it's kinda funny to have someone come by and say "try to reach pr0n now!").
>
>       The first person to bypass it was the one that handled postmaster@*
>
>       only takes moments from a spam msg to get there..
>
>       short of having a live person (uh, isn't that called a parent?)
> review the material invovled, there will always be a way to bypass
> it, someone could hack some major content providers systems and serve
> out nothing but content that is restricted.. i don't see much that can be
> done to prevent those that truly want access to obtain it.

The law does not require that pr0n be blocked on customer request, only
that access to a list of sites (addresses?) on a published list be
blocked. A very different beast and a task that is not too onerous. No
more so than SPAM RBLs and bogon address RBLs if handled properly.

Any chance that it will block access to pr0n? No. But, within the
limited parameters of the law passed, it might be workable. This is not
a claim that it is a reasonable law or that it will really serve to any
end-user's benefit, only that it's not a huge issue for most ISPs. 

Of course, if it is upheld and lots of states jump on the bandwagon with
similar legislation, the scalability of the system comes into question.
There is going to be much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth when
parents discover that it really doesn't work and the demand goes out for
something "better". They will claim that the state promised, but they
won't be taking legal action against the state. :-(
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman () es net                       Phone: +1 510 486-8634