CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘Newsgroups’ Category

Giganews Boosts Aid to Fight Exploitation of Minors: “The Internet can be a tough place for lesser known protocols such as BitTorrent and the newsgroups. They are often times the target of all types of political rhetoric and agendas, and frequently the target of copyright enforcement claims – because after all, the World Wide Web is a sacred place. Lately, the newsgroups came under fire from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and were a focal point of his campaign to rid internet of the exploitation of minors.”

His campaign was targeted largely at consumer ISPs such as Cablevision, Comcast, RoadRunner, Sprint, and AT&T. These large companies agreed to work with the attorney general’s office, and by that we mean they, in varying degrees, discontinued their customer’s access to the newsgroups. While the effort to rid the internet of child abuse images is noble, taking a Gatling gun to an entire protocol of the Internet was seen as a bit extreme.

The newsgroups are a historic part of the Internet that predates the World Wide Web by over a dozen years. This medium was initially used in a similar manner as today’s community forums, where people would gather and discuss a wide range of topics. The newsgroups were eventually used to distribute files as well, mostly common nonsense like movies, MP3s, videos, and so on. However, like many protocols of the Internet, the newsgroups were exploited to trade images of child abuse.

Although Cuomo’s campaign has successfully exterminated the newsgroups from many ISPs, the problem still remains. Unfortunately, ISP news servers are typically designed for discussion, not trading files. The result of Cuomo’s actions resulted largely in the inconveniencing of legitimate customers who are looking to talk about their hobbies, computer issues, and so on. It’s unknown if Cuomo succeeded or simply forced his targets onto third party newsgroup providers. But if the latter is true, third party providers aren’t about to make things easy for them.

Giganews, one of the largest newsgroup providers, announced their intentions to increase funding to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), an organization committed to eradicating child abuse images from the net. Giganews took the attorney general’s words seriously, and conducted a self evaluation on their own server network. The study revealed two interesting points:

“First, by using the New York Attorney General’s information, 99.9997% of Usenet has been found to be free of child sexual abuse images,” the latest blog post on Giganews reads. “It is clear that Usenet is not the haven for child sexual abuse that some have recently attempted to claim. Regardless of the small percentage, Giganews has never and will never turn a blind eye to the problem.”

“Second, the Internet Watch Foundation is the most effective agency fighting the spread of this filth. Unlike any US based organization, the IWF actively monitors suspected and known newsgroups as well as any specific images reported to them by Internet users. After they verify the materials are, in fact, child sexual abuse, they transmit takedown notices to all member Usenet providers.”

Giganews’ move is significant. As the largest provider of the newsgroups, Giganews’ action will likely send the message that just because consumer ISPs may be on the decline, third party providers won’t be home for abusive images.

(Via Slyck.com File-Sharing News And Information.)

(Via Techdirt.)

Andrew Cuomo’s Blueprint For How Gov’t Can Get ISPs To Censor Content: “It looks like NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has put forth a nice blueprint for how politicians can ‘censor’ online content without technically breaking a law themselves: just threaten to publicly humiliate ISPs who won’t censor for you. The process was quite straightforward actually. Cuomo basically threatened that he would sue these ISPs for not agreeing to his own vendetta against ‘objectionable content’ where a third party — with no oversight — gets to determine what’s objectionable. Even though there is no legal reason why these ISPs need to block such content, Cuomo made it clear that the publicity around such a lawsuit, implying that the ISPs weren’t against such objectionable content, would be a public relations nightmare.

So, one by one ISPs have been caving. Broadband Reports notes that at least two more ISPs have agreed to sign Cuomo’s ‘rules’ even if they’re not even sure how they’ll follow through on them. Of course, as we’ve pointed out, this is all about politics anyway, as following the ‘rules’ will do absolutely nothing to stop the production or consumption of objectionable content.

Either way, now other politicians have the blueprint for censorship: simply threaten the ISPs that you’ll sue them and publicly claim that they’re unwilling to be ‘family friendly’ or ‘protect the children’ or any other buzzword.

TechDirt commentary on the ongoing New York initiative for ISPs to block access to newsgroups carrying child pornography.

Andrew Cuomo Threatens To Sue Comcast If It Doesn’t Sign Up For His Plan To Pretend To Fight Child Porn: “Last month, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo made some news by pressuring a bunch of ISPs to agree to block certain sites in a totally misguided effort to fight child porn. It will actually do the opposite, because it merely hides the issue, driving it further underground, rather than attacking at the source. At the same time, it opens up a very questionable door: having ISPs blocking any content that they feel is ‘objectionable’ in some manner. It’s not hard to predict where this goes, in terms of ISPs blocking other types of content as well.

Comcast was one of the companies that agreed last week to a similar proposal with a bunch of state attorneys general, but apparently that’s not enough for Andrew Cuomo. He’s now threatening to sue Comcast within five days if it doesn’t sign the more stringent ‘code of conduct’ that Cuomo wrote up. Apparently Cuomo doesn’t think last week’s agreement goes far enough.

Of course, what’s odd is that nowhere does Cuomo explain how Comcast’s actions violate the law. He just threatens to sue over it — and even makes a veiled threat that the lawsuit alone will be damaging to Comcast, because Cuomo will position it as Comcast protecting child porn:

Comcast’s unwillingness to sign the code of conduct and purge its system of child pornography puts Comcast at the back of the pack in the race to fight this scourge, and would likely be surprising to Comcast’s millions of customers across the country.

The reason Cuomo doesn’t explain what the legal rationale for any lawsuit, is because there isn’t one. Comcast as a connectivity provider is not responsible for what content goes across its network. Cuomo (one would hope) knows this — and is bullying Comcast into signing his ‘Code of Conduct’ by threatening to paint the company as protecting child porn. That’s a rather sickening abuse of power — and the end result will only be to make it more difficult to stop child pornography, while opening the door to widespread content blocking by ISPs.

(Via Techdirt.)

NCTA Members Take Stand Against Child Porn - 7/17/2008 12:45:00 PM - Multichannel News: “NCTA Members Take Stand Against Child Porn
Cable Broadband Providers Serving 112 Million Homes Sign Pact with NCMEC, NAAG
– Multichannel News, 7/17/2008 12:45:00 PM

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association Thursday announced that 18 of the nation’s largest cable and broadband Internet service providers have agreed to block access to any Web sites known to host or distribute illegal child pornography files.

By signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU), these cable operators serving 87%, or more than 112 million homes, of Internet service subscribers will work with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG).

In addition, the member companies will also report any instances of child pornography they unearth to the NCMEC CyberTipline and, where appropriate, revise their policies around other potential sources of child pornography such as newsgroups and other online bulletin boards.

‘Building on our strong commitment to online safety, the cable industry wants to help combat child pornography and exploitation,’ Kyle McSlarrow (pictured), president and CEO of the NCTA, said in a statement. ‘By signing the NCMEC [memorandum of understanding], cable Internet service providers are reaffirming their strong commitment to online safety and Internet literacy for all American families.’

The cable operators that have agreed to execute the memorandum of understanding within 30 days include: Comcast Corporation; Cox Communications; Charter Communications; Cablevision Systems Corporation; Bright House Networks; Suddenlink Communications; Mediacom Communications; Insight Communications; Bresnan Communications; Midcontinent Communications; Broadstripe; GCI; Harron Communications; US Cable Corporation; BendBroadband; Eagle Communications; and Sjoberg’s, Inc. Time Warner Cable has already signed the MOU.

On behalf of NAAG and the 45 Attorneys General who have signed a letter in support of the NCTA-NCMEC MOU, Rhode Island Attorney General and NAAG President Patrick C. Lynch commended NCMEC and NCTA on the agreement.

‘Although NCMEC has recently signed similar agreements with individual companies, this agreement is notable as the first such agreement NCMEC has reached with an entire sector of the nation’s communications industry,’ Lynch said in a statement. ‘The NCTA agreement with NCMEC will limit the ability of predators to store and exchange images of exploitation of those who are, by definition, among the more vulnerable in society. We congratulate the cable industry for taking a strong stand in support of child safety.’

All 18 cable companies have agreed to use NCMEC’s list of active Web sites identified as containing child pornography, to ensure that no such site is hosted on servers owned or controlled by those companies.

NCTA officials said the agreement with NCMEC will provide cable broadband service providers with ‘an invaluable source of information to help them enforce their terms of service, all of which forbid the hosting of such illegal materials on their servers.’ The information provided by NCMEC to cable service providers will also help them identify instances of child pornography, facilitating their reporting of such material to NCMEC as required by federal law. This, in turn, enables NCMEC to refer these cases to law enforcement for investigation and prosecution.

In June 2007, NCTA launched its PointSmartClickSafe online safety initiative under which cable ISPs pledged in a code of conduct to support law enforcement in its efforts to ensure online safety for American families. “

ISPs Nationwide Unite in Attack against Exploitation: “ISP-based newsgroups have taken a beating in the last month, as New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s initiative against child pornography has forced many of the more popular newsgroup hierarchies offline. Verizon, Sprint, RoadRunner, and late last week, AT&T, have all acted on the Attorney General’s recommendation. Today, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) announced a ‘historic’ agreement where all member companies have entered into a MOU (Memoradum of Understanding) with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) to attack child pornography on their servers and networks.”

(Via Slyck.com File-Sharing News And Information.)

Verizon offers details of Usenet deletion: alt.* groups, others gone: “

Verizon Communications confirmed on Thursday that it will stop offering its customers access to tens of thousands of Usenet discussion areas, including the alt.* groups that have been a free-flowing area for discussions for over two decades.

Eric Rabe, a Verizon spokesman, said only a subset of discussion groups, …

“

(Via The Iconoclast.)

N.Y. A.G. says AOL will curb access to Usenet. It already did: “

It’s no secret that politicians tend to churn out press releases touting their accomplishments, no matter how mean or insignificant. But it is still possible to be surprised on occasion, which brings us to today’s announcement by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat.

In his press release, …

“

(Via The Iconoclast.)

City Room: AT&T and AOL Agree to Fight Child Pornography: “AT&T and America Online have agreed to eliminate access to child pornography on newsgroups and their servers.

(Via NYT > Technology.)

California pols ask ISPs to block child porn | Tech news blog - CNET News.com: “California pols ask ISPs to block child porn

Posted by Marguerite Reardon, Update: This story was updated at 2:55 p.m. PDT to add comments from AT&T.

California’s governor and attorney general are asking Internet service providers to help stop the dissemination of child pornography.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. issued a press release Friday asking Internet service providers in California to follow the lead of Verizon Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint in ‘removing child pornography from existing servers and blocking channels’ that disseminate the illegal material.

‘Protecting the safety of our children must be a top priority, not just for government, but also for businesses with the direct power to reduce the ability to conduct illegal activity,’ they said in a joint letter to the California Internet Service Provider Association. “

Upcoming Changes in Verizon s Newsgroup Service - Verizon PolicyBlog: “Upcoming Changes in Verizon’s Newsgroup Service
Posted by Eric Rabe in Policy on June 13, 2008, 01:23 PM EST

There has been a lot of reporting about our announcement this week with New York’s Attorney General that we will work to more effectively limit customer access to child pornography over the Internet. We have also seen discussion in online forums about what this means.

Here’s what Verizon will do.

In the case of Web pages on Verizon servers, we have clear terms of service that prohibit posting of child pornography and to do so violates those service agreements. We will review a list of Web pages containing child pornography that is provided to us regularly by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and take down pages from that list that are on Verizon servers. We will report the infraction to law enforcement.

Also beginning June 24, 2008, Verizon will no longer provide access to many of the newsgroups that we had previously provided. We will only offer groups in the Big 8 newsgroups hierarchies, which are listed below. Users will not be able to post or download from any other newsgroups. We have notified customers on the Verizon.net Web site of these changes.

We are not blocking access to either newsgroups or Web sites operated by others. Customers who still want to access newsgroups that are not on this list can do so through commercially available newsgroup services.

Here are the Big-8 newsgroup hierarchies that we will provide access to:

comp.*
humanities.*
misc.*
news.*
rec.*
sci.*
soc.*
talk.*

The 0.verizon.* newsgroup hierarchy will also continue to be available.

Verizon Business, which serves the enterprise market, has a somewhat different solution. Verizon Business is eliminating the ability of newsgroups to carry pictures, limiting the size of the articles distributed through its service, and is eliminating all alt.binaries and alt.binaries hierarchies. In short, Verizon Business will allow access to all newsgroups, but only for text messages.

This change will not affect our customers’ ability to use the Internet or other commercial newsgroup services. Verizon has been a strong proponent of free access for all users to the Internet, and we remain so today.