FC: Politech quotes of the week from members of Congress

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1015475.html

Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said enacting (an anti-gambling) law was 
necessary to protect America's children. "These sites specifically target 
preteen-age children. They're becoming addicted to it, and they turn to 
crime...If dogs, cats, rabbits, any animal--if they protect their youth, at 
least we can rise to that level and protect the youth of our country."

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http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1015475.html

Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, chairman of the Financial Services committee, 
said restricting offshore gambling was necessary to thwart al-Qaida and 
other terrorist cells. "Internet gambling services (are) a haven for money 
launderers," Oxley said during the floor debate. "Offshore Internet 
gambling sites can be a haven for terrorists to launder money."
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http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1015948.html

Subcommittee Chairman Gordon Smith, R-Ore., suggested that "grossly 
pornographic" files on P2P networks are a "deceptive trade practice which 
seems to be under the FTC's jurisdiction." Under the Federal Trade 
Commission Act, the agency has power to punish "unfair or deceptive acts or 
practices in or affecting commerce."

Smith asked the FTC what actions it was taking to protect "young people 
from what is clearly deception when it comes under the heading Harry Potter 
and is clearly pornography."

FTC Chairman Tim Muris, who testified along with three other commissioners, 
replied by saying his staff's research shows that P2P pornography is 
typically labeled correctly. "We find that in many cases, unfortunately, 
they're quite explicit about what they're leading you to and are not 
deceptive," Muris said.

Smith also raised privacy concerns, warning that anyone installing P2P 
software could leak sensitive files. "In tapping into these things, they 
expose their own private materials--health information--into the public 
domain," Smith said.

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http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1015469.html

(Rep. Lamar) Smith called for greater disciplinary action against 
peer-to-peer pirates at universities, saying that research showed 16 
percent of the files available on Kazaa are located at schools and 
universities. "It's unlikely that this amount of file-sharing activity is 
in furtherance of class assignments," Smith said




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