[ NNSquad ] Re: Brits' Failed Heavy Metal Censorship Attempt Disrupts Wikipedia Edits

[Brett Glass <nnsquad@brettglass.com>]

Say what you will about that album cover, you had better watch out 
if you have a copy of it on your computer -- even if it's just in 
your Web browser's cache directory -- when you cross any national 
border, or if you are being investigated for any crime. Never mind 
that you personally might think that it's of historical interest, 
or that it's a perfectly innocent artistic nude. That's not what a 
zealous prosecutor or a court will say. They'll say that you're in 
possession of kiddie porn, and the law makes you a criminal even if 
you claim not to think it's kiddie porn. You're likely to spend a 
LONG time in jail as a result.

What's more, were it not for the protections afforded by the 
Children's Online Protection Act (COPA), ISPs would be equally 
worried that at any time their offices could be raided, their 
equipment taken, and their services shut down because of a 
transient copy of such an image on a mail server or in a Web cache.

One of the dangers of enacting "network neutrality" legislation is 
that it might elminate ISPs' protection from liability for such 
traffic. Open the can of worms of Internet regulation, and you'll 
never get the worms back into the can.

--Brett Glass

  [ COPA -- which would impose broad prohibitions and restrictions
    on content carried by "commercial" Web site operators -- has
    (thankfully) never been enforced.  Here's a July 2008 EFF
    writeup on its current status: 

    http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/07/key-internet-censorship-law-struck-down-yet-again

    Most current ISP content liability protections in this vein stem
    from the DMCA, which, to paraphrase Brett, is a different can
    of worms.

    By the way, there's no reason why network neutrality legislation
    must necessarily eliminate reasonable liability protections for
    ISPs related to third-party content.

      -- Lauren Weinstein
         NNSquad Moderator ]