Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 09:09:01 -0600 From: Blaine Minazzi <bminazzi@denverweb.net> To: isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How many customers read news (was Re: News...) Message-ID: <335B830D.3D947A59@denverweb.net> References: <Pine.BSI.3.95.970420195124.25289I-100000@buffnet11.buffnet.net> <3.0.1.32.19970420213538.009d6310@sentex.net> <3.0.1.32.19970421062113.0250c100@sentex.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Mike Tancsa wrote: > As far as I know, in Ontario, Canada, an ISP is NOT required to go through > each and every post to determine and judge whether or not a particular post > is illegal or not. I dont have time to do, and I dont think the police or > the courts expect me to do it. Sure, you can make reasonable efforts (e.g. > not carry alt.pedophilia or alt.binaries.warez.*, which we dont), but I am > not going to spend 24hrs a day going through > alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.* to make sure each and every post does not > depict someone under 18. I don't know about canadian law. Here, if a newsgroup carries a number of illegal images, it really wouldn't matter _what_ the title of the group was, you might find yourself facing charges. I don't think that a jury would be as likely to aquit for illegal images in alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.* as they would on alt.tv.foo-bar Whether you are convicted or not, the cost of defending yourself could be rather high. If a law enforcement agency wants to put you out of business, they may seize your equipment as evidence. You get it back AFTER the trial. Another twist, is they may seize ALL your assets they feel were gained through illegal activities. ( like they do in drug cases. ) So, you could find your house, car, bank accounts and equipment all seized. (owch! Now how are you going to hire an attorney? )The Fourth amendment has become as effective as toilet paper with that practice. While someone here is hashing it out in court, their customers go down the street to the next ISP, and the telco and maybe your upstream still expect to get paid. Same with office space, etc. You could be bankrupt and done for before it even makes it to court for trial. So, for here, removing ALL binaries ( in the sexually oriented groups at least.) could show that you were trying to do your part. Since they are such bandwidth pigs, simply getting rig of all binaries in newsgroups would be the best solution, IMHO. As ISP's, I feel we have a responsibility to try to prohibit criminals from using our service to conduct thier illegal activities, while providing our legitimate customers with as much service as possible. Actually, I am surprised that many ISP's care more about the money than the fact that we are being _used_ by criminals to help them break the law. Hell, why not just let a drug dealer put a little package in your car for your routine trip across the country to aunt emma's. They put it there, someone on the other end picks it up, but as long as YOU don't know whats in it, your not liable? That will get you a room with striped sunlite in this country. Blaine
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?335B830D.3D947A59>