Well, the modern version might be something like…”What if they declared a privacy invasion and EVERYBODY came ?

Suppose…just suppose…that all the millions of people who have nothing to hide went to Google and searched (repeatedly)for…say… “George Bush is a Constitution-Hating Fascist” or “George Bush is clueless about Freedom of…ANYTHING.”

What value would there be to obtaining the results if they were so polluted with normal (but irritated) law-abiding citizens? By the time the NSA compiles, prioritizes, and starts investigating such a lengthy list of suspects, many of their suspects will be retired, moved away, or dead of old age…making the list essentially worthless.

We talk a lot in this country about voting. Mostly its just luck if we happen to get someone in office who actually cares enough about the country to live up to their promises after they are securely into their office. But mass searching Google would be a vote of another kind…a vote to say that is not the kind of country I want and I’m not going to keep silent. A subtle version of “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore.”

…Or, you could just hope for the best and look surprised when you wake up and find the world has become just like George Orwell’s 1984.

As for me…I gotta go…I’ve got some search records to create.

Amen to that. I absolutely agree.

And I agree child porn is often that government foot in the door to the “no privacy/ censorship/ government control” room. KP is so disgusting that it would blind some people to hear what’s happening. Someone could say, “Because we must fight child porn we must also double the taxes.” And when someone replies “But is it really necessary to double the taxes?”, the counter-argument is: “What, are you PRO child porn?!” Dang, this is the oldest trick in the book, and I’m sure every government in the world knows it…

The child online act will do absolutely zero to protect children from accessing porn or becoming prey to some sick individual. Filtering doesn’t work and hasn’t. The xxx domain idea was a bust.

The only way for child to truly be protected online is to have parental influence. That is where it starts and where it stops.

And finally I believe the opening sentence says exactly where I’m coming from on this: “I’m glad to hear that Google will fight the government’s efforts to subpoena information related to their battle to crack down on porn under the guise of the protecting children on the internet.”

Those who believe this child online protection act is truly about the children are sadly mistaken. This is about the US Government trying to expand their powers into the privacy of adult’s homes and trying to piggyback on the children to do it.

And thank goodness Google is saying no to give up their proprietary search data to get to the information. If the government really wants to protect the children, as I said in the original post, there are numerous ways to go about this right now that they aren’t able to do.

Clean up the illegal stuff before worrying about the legal stuff. *That* is what this all has to do with KP. Make sense?

Again, I urge you to contact some established adult webamsters, show them this story and see what they have to say. I believe you will see this in a much different light.

Instead of taking my word for it or using the text of the act so literally, talk to some adult webmasters and get their impression on what is really happening here. I think you will find — as I already know — a much different story.

The government would like to see all adult content go away. They would prefer to broadly extend the obscenity statutes which was one of their key threats with Ashcroft. This is a much broader issue that reaches far beyond what most mainstream press will report on because taking the side of the adult webmasters isn’t popular opinion.

The problem is the courts haven’t let them sweep with a wide brush.

As for my quote above, I’m pointing out a very different and yet related problem. The feds can’t track down and prosecute the KP in the numbers that exist now. They complain about existing manpower. How will they be able to crack down on non illegal adult content if they can’t even fully prosecute the illegal stuff?

This is a much, much broader issue and very few mainstream publications will tell all sides of what is going on here. Ask around in the right sectors and see what you learn

Nor did they ever said they want to in this controversy. This controversy is not about child porn, it is (if anything) about children looking at porn, which are two very different things. Refer to the Child Online Protection Act at http://www.epic.org/free_speech/censorship/copa.html , which is is about restricting a child’s access to web content that may be harmful to the child.

More at http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-01-19-n45.html