Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations IamaSherpa on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
California sets fines for spyware 4
- Thread starter GwydionM
- Start date
- Status
-
1
- #2
craigsboyd
IS-IT--Management
I cannot understand why IT professionals would welcome legislation, laws, and restrictions on technology.
Do I root for the spammers, spyware makers, malware creators and the rest? Not by any stretch of the imagination. I do however feel that technology and education are the answers to these problems, not more laws governing what can and cannot be developed. Welcome Big Brother in with open arms and let him regulate with your blessings and I believe you'll eventually find that you have much more to worry about than spam, spyware, and viruses.
Don't get me wrong, government is well suited for a number of tasks and responsibilities. This does not happen to be one of them. It is first of all a waste of time and has no hope of being an effective deterent. Secondly, I don't want Big Brother in charge of "protecting" any more of my personal information than they already do. Thirdly... a what's the use?![[smile]](/data/assets/smilies/smile.gif "[smile] [smile]")
Come on governments, we need some more laws, taxes, and help over here because we just can't seem to figure a way out of this mess ourselves. Tell me what kind of programs I can write, the type of code I am allowed to execute, how many emails I can send, and while you're at it send me a bill.
Do I root for the spammers, spyware makers, malware creators and the rest? Not by any stretch of the imagination. I do however feel that technology and education are the answers to these problems, not more laws governing what can and cannot be developed. Welcome Big Brother in with open arms and let him regulate with your blessings and I believe you'll eventually find that you have much more to worry about than spam, spyware, and viruses.
Don't get me wrong, government is well suited for a number of tasks and responsibilities. This does not happen to be one of them. It is first of all a waste of time and has no hope of being an effective deterent. Secondly, I don't want Big Brother in charge of "protecting" any more of my personal information than they already do. Thirdly... a what's the use?
Come on governments, we need some more laws, taxes, and help over here because we just can't seem to figure a way out of this mess ourselves. Tell me what kind of programs I can write, the type of code I am allowed to execute, how many emails I can send, and while you're at it send me a bill.
-
1
- #3
SantaMufasa
Technical User
Craig,
I totally agree with you...that technology and education should provide the resolutions to this technological misbehaviour. I'd like to hear your ideas on the technological and educational programmes that you believe can rein in the evil doers while preserving personal liberty.
![[santa]](/data/assets/smilies/santa.gif "[santa] [santa]")
Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
@ 21:52 (02Jan05) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"),
@ 14:52 (02Jan05) Mountain Time
I totally agree with you...that technology and education should provide the resolutions to this technological misbehaviour. I'd like to hear your ideas on the technological and educational programmes that you believe can rein in the evil doers while preserving personal liberty.
Mufasa(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
@ 21:52 (02Jan05) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"),
@ 14:52 (02Jan05) Mountain Time
-
1
- #4
CajunCenturion
Programmer
I can, on the other hand, understand why IT professionals would welcome legislation against those who abuse the technology.craigsboyd said:
Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
-
1
- #5
I used to like vegging out on Arnie's action moveis, but my thoughts about him really changed (for the worse) when I saw his very apparent "right-wing" policies.
However, a crime is a crime, and stealing is a crime. It is against the law, and it may be a requirement to update the laws to accommodate new technology.
When I find spyware on user workstations, I ponder two things...
- Who got what information, and was it important?
- How much "down time" and lost productivity occurred? I investigate spyware issue after a user reports problems. (I have been trying for years to get corporate to consider spyware as a threat along the same line as viruses -- gee wiz, some body just got our financial statments and marketing strategies because an analyst decided to download "free" MP3 "documents") The spyware does some weird things to the desktop like accesses the web without the browser being open, or chews up resources on the desktop, as well as hijackes / redirects searches and home page.
But from my perspective, the real issue is that spyware, phishing and other Internet scams are global. You will always have people who have no scrupples who and turn an extremely useful tool to their own self-serving greedy needs. Education will not help here -- some people are either very corrupt, don't care or have what they feel is a "higher" calling.
But how do you implement legislation across the boarder? Okay, Arnie locks down Calfornia. So the scammers move to Nevada. Arnie is successful in getting a federal law passed, so the scammers move to another country.
The genie is out of the bottle, and Elvis has left the building.
Although legislation may help, I feel the real answer lies with moving back to a more secure OS. It is a real shame to loose so much flexibility and freedom, but with power comes responsibility, and some people in this worlds have no deesire on being responsible global citizens.
However, a crime is a crime, and stealing is a crime. It is against the law, and it may be a requirement to update the laws to accommodate new technology.
When I find spyware on user workstations, I ponder two things...
- Who got what information, and was it important?
- How much "down time" and lost productivity occurred? I investigate spyware issue after a user reports problems. (I have been trying for years to get corporate to consider spyware as a threat along the same line as viruses -- gee wiz, some body just got our financial statments and marketing strategies because an analyst decided to download "free" MP3 "documents") The spyware does some weird things to the desktop like accesses the web without the browser being open, or chews up resources on the desktop, as well as hijackes / redirects searches and home page.
But from my perspective, the real issue is that spyware, phishing and other Internet scams are global. You will always have people who have no scrupples who and turn an extremely useful tool to their own self-serving greedy needs. Education will not help here -- some people are either very corrupt, don't care or have what they feel is a "higher" calling.
But how do you implement legislation across the boarder? Okay, Arnie locks down Calfornia. So the scammers move to Nevada. Arnie is successful in getting a federal law passed, so the scammers move to another country.
The genie is out of the bottle, and Elvis has left the building.
Although legislation may help, I feel the real answer lies with moving back to a more secure OS. It is a real shame to loose so much flexibility and freedom, but with power comes responsibility, and some people in this worlds have no deesire on being responsible global citizens.
SantaMufasa
Technical User
So, Willir, are you trying to tell me that if Arnold does something that you agree with, then that either makes you a "right-winger" or Arnold has lost his mind and has become a "liberal?". One thing that stands in the way of real progress is when someone either rejects a "good" idea because they politically disagree with the originator, or (just as bad) accept a "bad" idea because they politicallty agree with the originator.
Now, down to brass tacks...both you and Craig seem to agree with me: a technological remedy to spyware stupidity is preferable to attempts to legislate a remedy.
So, rather than dismissing a possible solution with generalities like, "The genie is out of the bottle, and Elvis has left the building....people in this world have no desire on being responsible global citizens," I believe you and the rest of us on the Ethics forum have enough smarts to assert some pretty reasonable resolutions to "technical problems" like spyware. Frankly, tightening up operating systems is not a bad place to focus.
But until we "techies" can come up with some reasonable solutions, don't expect (non-technical) legislators to stand around waiting for us to take action. Remember, legislators (even stupid ones) usually don't waste their time making laws where no problem and no public outcry exist. If we can solve a problem technologically, why would legislators waste their time making laws to prevent what we have made impossible?
So, let's not be chucking rocks at "right-wing" or "left-wing" legislators for making laws to prevent perceived "evils" as long as we are unwilling/unable to fix our technical problems technologically.
Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
@ 05:03 (04Jan05) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"),
@ 22:03 (03Jan05) Mountain Time
Now, down to brass tacks...both you and Craig seem to agree with me: a technological remedy to spyware stupidity is preferable to attempts to legislate a remedy.
So, rather than dismissing a possible solution with generalities like, "The genie is out of the bottle, and Elvis has left the building....people in this world have no desire on being responsible global citizens," I believe you and the rest of us on the Ethics forum have enough smarts to assert some pretty reasonable resolutions to "technical problems" like spyware. Frankly, tightening up operating systems is not a bad place to focus.
But until we "techies" can come up with some reasonable solutions, don't expect (non-technical) legislators to stand around waiting for us to take action. Remember, legislators (even stupid ones) usually don't waste their time making laws where no problem and no public outcry exist. If we can solve a problem technologically, why would legislators waste their time making laws to prevent what we have made impossible?
So, let's not be chucking rocks at "right-wing" or "left-wing" legislators for making laws to prevent perceived "evils" as long as we are unwilling/unable to fix our technical problems technologically.
Mufasa(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
@ 05:03 (04Jan05) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"),
@ 22:03 (03Jan05) Mountain Time
craigsboyd
IS-IT--Management
Nice use of that little anagram at the end there SantaMufasa. Sorry, I'm short on time... will post more later.
Sorry, I'm short on time... will post more later.
SantaMufasa
Technical User
I can't take credit for an unintentional, serendipitous anagram. In fact, even worse, I can't even find the anagram to which you refer. Please revoke both the kudos and my ignorance by pointing out the anagram.
![[cheers]](/data/assets/smilies/cheers.gif "[cheers] [cheers]")
Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
@ 22:51 (04Jan05) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"),
@ 15:51 (04Jan05) Mountain Time
Click here to Donate to Tsunami Relief. 100% of your contributions here go to the victims...0% to administration.
They were "The First-Responder" to the disaster, with relief deliveries arriving before Red Cross and U.S. aid.
Mufasa(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
@ 22:51 (04Jan05) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"),
@ 15:51 (04Jan05) Mountain Time
Click here to Donate to Tsunami Relief. 100% of your contributions here go to the victims...0% to administration.
They were "The First-Responder" to the disaster, with relief deliveries arriving before Red Cross and U.S. aid.
Mufasa
Sorry to confuse. Politics is always a tough issue.
I am not from CA, but friends of mine who are, and what is protrayed in the news gave me a different perspective on him. It did surprize me at first.
Left or right leaning politics can always generate good or bad policies. Moreover, a left-wing or right wing government can decide to proceed with a specific agenda, but for different reasons.
And you are so right that a good policy or legislation can be blocked for political / wrong reasons. Or, as is done in the US, one piece of legislation is tacked onto another. If the politician or voter likes one policy or legislation, but disagrees with the other -- do they vote for package deal and get criticized for supporting the policy they were not in favour of, OR do they not support the package deal, and get criticized for not supporting the one policy that they favoured?
As a side comment on this, I also find it very frustrating, not with you but when listening to new broadcasts, when politcal parties use linkage to associate what can be a good policy with a derogatory term instead of looking at the details and criticizing the policy from an intellectual perspective.
...Moving on
By using the term "genie out of the bottle", etc, I meant that Internet usage, global economy, etc, will be very difficult to roll back on. There are too many "holes" to plug. Different countries, etc.
So I guess you are right. By a process of elimination, a technoligcal solution is needed.
Many, many years ago, I was not in favour in the way Bill Gates invisioned the way he wanted Windows to operate. I found his concept of "you have mail", or having a flashy HTML page being displayed as your letter head for eMail fairly scarey and an excessive use of resources. He owns Mircosoft, so he won that discussion. And he is rich, and I am not. (I never talked to him personally of course)
My take was...
- content is more important than "pizzaz"
- having code execute, especially non-compiled code was a security risk
And for the record, for at least three years, I have "loudly" reported to my IT management my concerns about the threat of spyware. Even though I supported my concerns with documentation, the concerns were mostly ignored. I am so glad that the antivirus companies are now addressing the problem -- the antivirus companies are probably more interested in the "profit" of adding a new product to their application suites, but it does show that they are treating the threat more seriously.
...Moving on
You are so right when about identifying the three problems.
- How do we resolve the problems of viruses and spyware with technical solutions?
- If we do use non-technical solutions, such as legislation, how do you write good laws and enforce them globally. As you know, some hackers and the creators of viruses have been arrested in many countries. Perhaps some type legislative solution may be possible, but it has to be a global solution.
- Public awareness. Two issues here -- education, and complaints / lobbying to both the software companies and the government. When a nasty virus gets loose, the economic cost is recognized as being huge. With spyware, there is a cost -- productivity is affected but not in the obvious way a virus may crash a system; -- security or the release of confidential material or your browser being redirected to an inappropriate site. Being in IT, I have had several parents come to me for help when their browser keeps going to pron sites when their child is trying to browse the web for a school project or the like. As a parent, I find this extermely distressing when little Jonny or Betty Sue gets redirected to a web site that is very inappropriate.
However, most of these problems are fairly infrequent, and consequently, below the radar which would generate the "public outcry".
I think the answer here is good research. How many PC's are infected at work and within a community? How many kids at school have worked on PC's where the browser was hijacked. What information was gleamed from the hard drive? Who is on the controlling end of spyware? Armed with this statistical information, the public could be better educated than, and the economic relavence to business may be more apparent.
In summary, a legislative solution may be a partial answer, but it has to a global approach. A technical solution is also part of the answer. Public awareness and education is a third part of the answer. Lastly, good research is requried to determine the scope of the problem.
BTW, I am glad you included your link on behalf of the Tsunami tradegy. Another topic for another day, but I think you are the first in this forum to take this action.
Sorry to confuse. Politics is always a tough issue.
I am not from CA, but friends of mine who are, and what is protrayed in the news gave me a different perspective on him. It did surprize me at first.
Left or right leaning politics can always generate good or bad policies. Moreover, a left-wing or right wing government can decide to proceed with a specific agenda, but for different reasons.
And you are so right that a good policy or legislation can be blocked for political / wrong reasons. Or, as is done in the US, one piece of legislation is tacked onto another. If the politician or voter likes one policy or legislation, but disagrees with the other -- do they vote for package deal and get criticized for supporting the policy they were not in favour of, OR do they not support the package deal, and get criticized for not supporting the one policy that they favoured?
As a side comment on this, I also find it very frustrating, not with you but when listening to new broadcasts, when politcal parties use linkage to associate what can be a good policy with a derogatory term instead of looking at the details and criticizing the policy from an intellectual perspective.
...Moving on
By using the term "genie out of the bottle", etc, I meant that Internet usage, global economy, etc, will be very difficult to roll back on. There are too many "holes" to plug. Different countries, etc.
So I guess you are right. By a process of elimination, a technoligcal solution is needed.
Many, many years ago, I was not in favour in the way Bill Gates invisioned the way he wanted Windows to operate. I found his concept of "you have mail", or having a flashy HTML page being displayed as your letter head for eMail fairly scarey and an excessive use of resources. He owns Mircosoft, so he won that discussion. And he is rich, and I am not. (I never talked to him personally of course)
My take was...
- content is more important than "pizzaz"
- having code execute, especially non-compiled code was a security risk
And for the record, for at least three years, I have "loudly" reported to my IT management my concerns about the threat of spyware. Even though I supported my concerns with documentation, the concerns were mostly ignored. I am so glad that the antivirus companies are now addressing the problem -- the antivirus companies are probably more interested in the "profit" of adding a new product to their application suites, but it does show that they are treating the threat more seriously.
...Moving on
You are so right when about identifying the three problems.
- How do we resolve the problems of viruses and spyware with technical solutions?
- If we do use non-technical solutions, such as legislation, how do you write good laws and enforce them globally. As you know, some hackers and the creators of viruses have been arrested in many countries. Perhaps some type legislative solution may be possible, but it has to be a global solution.
- Public awareness. Two issues here -- education, and complaints / lobbying to both the software companies and the government. When a nasty virus gets loose, the economic cost is recognized as being huge. With spyware, there is a cost -- productivity is affected but not in the obvious way a virus may crash a system; -- security or the release of confidential material or your browser being redirected to an inappropriate site. Being in IT, I have had several parents come to me for help when their browser keeps going to pron sites when their child is trying to browse the web for a school project or the like. As a parent, I find this extermely distressing when little Jonny or Betty Sue gets redirected to a web site that is very inappropriate.
However, most of these problems are fairly infrequent, and consequently, below the radar which would generate the "public outcry".
I think the answer here is good research. How many PC's are infected at work and within a community? How many kids at school have worked on PC's where the browser was hijacked. What information was gleamed from the hard drive? Who is on the controlling end of spyware? Armed with this statistical information, the public could be better educated than, and the economic relavence to business may be more apparent.
In summary, a legislative solution may be a partial answer, but it has to a global approach. A technical solution is also part of the answer. Public awareness and education is a third part of the answer. Lastly, good research is requried to determine the scope of the problem.
BTW, I am glad you included your link on behalf of the Tsunami tradegy. Another topic for another day, but I think you are the first in this forum to take this action.
- Thread starter
- #10
I'm not hugely bothered what the government know about me, on the grounds that they mostly don't do anything with it. There are checks to government abuse. I do object private individuals and corporations taking information they have no right to.
------------------------------
A view
![[tiger]](/data/assets/smilies/tiger.gif "[tiger] [tiger]")
from the UK
CajunCenturion
Programmer
That's true pmonett.
It is also true that there are several hundred people on the streets in the US for months on end because bogus charges were not allowed to stand up.
The system is not perfect, neither is it one-sided.
Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
It is also true that there are several hundred people on the streets in the US for months on end because bogus charges were not allowed to stand up.
The system is not perfect, neither is it one-sided.
Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
CajunCenturion
Programmer
Perhaps, but the news doesn't report on those times when the system works. That's not news-worthy; that is expected. If a system works 95% of the time, but all you hear about is the 5% of the failures, then your perception of the system may not be accurate.
Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
craigsboyd
IS-IT--Management
CajunCenturion.
I don't think if I created a software system for a user and it failed 5% of the time that they would be very enthusiastic about it, especially if the user-base for that software was an entire country such as the USA. I realize that you weren't providing hard data on the actual ratio of successes to failures here, but it still needs to be noted that the "checks to government abuse" had better be able to keep it to an acceptable failure rate. It is indeed a tough job and a tough call, I know I'm grateful that my decisions and mistakes don't carry that intense amount of responsibility and scrutiny.
I don't think if I created a software system for a user and it failed 5% of the time that they would be very enthusiastic about it, especially if the user-base for that software was an entire country such as the USA. I realize that you weren't providing hard data on the actual ratio of successes to failures here, but it still needs to be noted that the "checks to government abuse" had better be able to keep it to an acceptable failure rate. It is indeed a tough job and a tough call, I know I'm grateful that my decisions and mistakes don't carry that intense amount of responsibility and scrutiny.
CajunCenturion
Programmer
craigsboyd - I agree and you're right. I don't have any hard data on the percentages, but I do think that the system, by no means perfect, works considerably more often than not. The point I was trying to make was that we only hear about the failures. The sensationalism and agendas in reporting agencies skew reality such that systems appear much worse than they actually are. In some cases, the reverse is true, the media presents a system better than it actually is.
Let's be brutally honest with ourselves. How often do we, as IT professionals and system developers, make bugs appears less serious than they are (telling people what they want to hear - especially towards management), or more serious (I told you so - especially towards management). It often boils down to what you say and don't say, and how you say it. As someone said, "Perception is 90% of reality" (author unknown).
Anyway, I'm not sure that 5% is an acceptable rate; maybe it should be 2% or even better. I think we also have to realize that unlike a traditional software system based in defined algorithmic processes, this system is more human, therefore fraught with human judgment and ambition.
Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
Let's be brutally honest with ourselves. How often do we, as IT professionals and system developers, make bugs appears less serious than they are (telling people what they want to hear - especially towards management), or more serious (I told you so - especially towards management). It often boils down to what you say and don't say, and how you say it. As someone said, "Perception is 90% of reality" (author unknown).
Anyway, I'm not sure that 5% is an acceptable rate; maybe it should be 2% or even better. I think we also have to realize that unlike a traditional software system based in defined algorithmic processes, this system is more human, therefore fraught with human judgment and ambition.
Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
I have a hw and two sw firewalls. I maintain up to date anti-virus sw, an anti-spam mail washer, two real-time anti-spyware apps and three scan and remove anti-spyware apps. I don't consider myself non-technical or a "non-responsible global citizen". Keeping all of this software updated and reading about their effectiveness / vulnerabilities is a part-time job. I do not program and my network knowledge is not robust, but I have been in technology fields for over 10 years.
All this said, I don't feel qualified to come up with a technological answer to the problem of spyware, but I do want to see some movement on the issue. Making something illegal that should be in the first place is at least a start. I don't see where the govt is getting more info from me or telling someone how to code by implementing this legislation. No more than they are telling axe makers how to make axes... use one to hack at another person and see if the govt notices though. And well they should in my opinion.
~Thadeus
craigsboyd
IS-IT--Management
As a developer, that is some pretty scary stuff. We have a government agency deciding what types of software can be installed and can't be installed on a computer based on functions it performs... the problem is that those who make spyware and virii are coding/creating programs. You can't wipe them out (with legislation) without eventually wiping out coding and creating programs to some extent, which is how I pay the bills at this end.
Here's an example for simplicity sake. Say that there are virii that reproduce themselves and erase certain files/information off the computer. So a legislator decides, "Hey, I know how to stop that." and introduces new legislation that bans the ability for developers to create programs that reproduce themselves and/or erase stuff off the user's computer. Well, I'd be going to jail because I've created some useful backup software and all of my applications delete/erase data at some point or another. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater just seems like an incredibly bad idea to me.
theBill said:
Craig, you can't seriously use the paraphrasing from a news article to justify your slippery-slope argument.
Looking at the actual wording in the bill, what do you see that is going to put you out of business?
We already have IT bills that are in effect all of the country and programmers are not shuttering their businesses. In PA, for example, ISPs are supposedly responsible to filter out all web content that could be considered child pornography. Should we worry that such a measure will put ISPs and web designers out of business because the govt. is legislating the activity of ISPs?
~Thadeus
craigsboyd
IS-IT--Management
If you seriously feel that my views are based solely on that small snippet I quoted from one of your earlier threads, feel free to dismiss my views Thadeus. I respect your opinion that governments (judicial and legislative branches specifically) should be regulating our industry and the internet. As for me, I'll put my faith in the private sector.
On the child pornography scare/smear tactic... give me a break, seriously. Obviously I don't believe ISPs and web developers will have to close down over a single piece of legislation. The demise will be much slower than that. Law on top of law, on top of policy, on top of requirements, on top of rules, on top of agencies, on top of commissions, on top of regulations will be heaped to the sky as Government is want to do. Innovation will be stifled, small business will be choked, bureaucracy and red tape will run rampant, and additional taxes will be assessed. And each push is the rationalization for the next...
Government's ineffectual ability to curtail such activities by legislation is well documented and proven again and again. And the rights and freedoms that are given up in the process are great.
Since you brought it up, let's take a closer look at the PA law that was overturned on the very grounds that it was ineffectual, a huge burden on the ISPs that were expected to implement it (nice how government makes all these laws and regulations without the funding or resources to implement them - "let's pass the buck and let them figure it out") and violated our constitutional rights (I want to be certain I am not unjustly accused of being ignorant of the issues at hand)...
You go ahead and support this sort of legislation Thadeus in a misguided attempt at consumer protection. I'l be over here on my slippery-slope, casting my vote for the opposition.
On the child pornography scare/smear tactic... give me a break, seriously. Obviously I don't believe ISPs and web developers will have to close down over a single piece of legislation. The demise will be much slower than that. Law on top of law, on top of policy, on top of requirements, on top of rules, on top of agencies, on top of commissions, on top of regulations will be heaped to the sky as Government is want to do. Innovation will be stifled, small business will be choked, bureaucracy and red tape will run rampant, and additional taxes will be assessed. And each push is the rationalization for the next...
Yep, I'll stay on the side of smaller government and more faith in the good of people and their abilities to deal with challenging problems such as spam, spyware, malware, virii, trojan horses, worms, pornography, and the like.
Government's ineffectual ability to curtail such activities by legislation is well documented and proven again and again. And the rights and freedoms that are given up in the process are great.
Since you brought it up, let's take a closer look at the PA law that was overturned on the very grounds that it was ineffectual, a huge burden on the ISPs that were expected to implement it (nice how government makes all these laws and regulations without the funding or resources to implement them - "let's pass the buck and let them figure it out") and violated our constitutional rights (I want to be certain I am not unjustly accused of being ignorant of the issues at hand)...
You go ahead and support this sort of legislation Thadeus in a misguided attempt at consumer protection. I'l be over here on my slippery-slope, casting my vote for the opposition.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Question
- Locked
- Question