Re: Bush regime is at it again, folks.

On Fri, 20 Jan 2006 08:17:27 -0500, Garry James
<downyonder@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Who's Looking for Porn?
>
>Associated Press
>
>The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law
>struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google for
>details on what its users have been looking for through its popular
>search engine.


That's a bull*** reason, of course. Whenever I hear "protect the
children", I'm immediately on alert that the government is going to
try to pull another fast one on me. The government wants info and
a sellable pretext for getting the info.

The parents may feel they're protecting the kids, but this stuff is
exactly what the kids are looking for. They're kids, after all.
They're not being protected so much as constrained.

There's a painting by Grant Wood (who's most famous for the
"American Gothic" painting of the old farmer with a pitchfork, his
spinster daughter beside him, standing stonefacedly in front of
their midwestern house) The picture I'm thinking of shows two
hunkered-down old hens sourly and suspiciously looking toward
each side of the painting to see what's going on over there, while
squinched between them is a youthful rooster with his scrawny
neck stuck high, looking out with bright and eager eyes at the
world beyond them. It's entitled "adolescence".


>
>Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for
>a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for
>1 million random web addresses and records of all Google searches from
>any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said in
>papers filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose, California.
>
>Privacy advocates have been increasingly scrutinizing Google's
>practices as the company expands its offerings to include e-mail,
>driving directions, photo-sharing, instant messaging and blogs.
>
>Although Google pledges to protect personal information, the company's
>privacy policy says it complies with legal and government requests.
>Google also has no stated guidelines on how long it keeps data,
>leading critics to warn that retention is potentially forever given
>cheap storage costs.
>
>The government contends it needs the data to determine how often
>pornography shows up in online searches as part of an effort to revive
>an internet child protection law that was struck down two years ago by
>the Supreme Court on free-speech grounds.
>
>The 1998 Child Online Protection Act would have required adults to use
>access codes or other ways of registering before they could see
>objectionable material online, and it would have punished violators
>with fines up to $50,000 or jail time. The high court ruled that
>technology such as filtering software may better protect children.
>
>The matter is now before a federal court in Pennsylvania, and the
>government wants the Google data to help argue that the law is more
>effective than software in protecting children from porn.
>
>The Mountain View-based company told The San Jose Mercury News that it
>opposes releasing the information because it would violate the privacy
>rights of its users and would reveal company trade secrets.
>
>Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company
>will fight the government's efforts "vigorously."
>
>"Google is not a party to this lawsuit, and the demand for the
>information is overreaching," Wong said.
>
>http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,70047-0.html?tw=wn_tophead_4



In the mountains the shortest way is from peak to peak:
but for that one must have long legs. --- Nietzsche
.