ISPs worry that Net safety bills would outlaw e-mail
Found on CNet News on Thursday, 19 February 2009
Two new federal proposals that Republican supporters claim will protect children have alarmed Internet companies, who say the measures could make it a crime to provide e-mail.
The mere provision of e-mail, electronic storage, cloud-computing services, and social-networking sites could be viewed as an act that "facilitates access to" illegal content, especially if the provider knows that some users in the past have been less than law-abiding.
Somebody at least thought of the children. No, really, how can politicians come up with crap like this? They don't understand anything about the Internet, so they should just shut up. Everything can facilitate access to illegal content (and the politicans' beloved child pornography). The telephone company, the maker of your VCR or CD/DVD drive (or of the computer for that), paper mills (you can print out illegal things, you know?) and whatever comes to your mind. Children sometimes even get shot, but nobody plans to outlaw guns. Oh wait, the Internet has no big lobby group like weapon manufacturers.