Group Questions Pennsylvania Site-Blocking Law
from the it's-about-time dept
Earlier this month Pennsylvania's Attorney General announced that they won't release their their list of banned sites because, after all, the point of them being banned is that someone in Pennsylvania's government who knows better than you doesn't think you should see the website. Today, the Center for Democracy and Technology appealed that decision as they're concerned about innocent sites (such as those co-hosted at the same IP address) being caught in the crossfire. Of course, this appeal is unlikely to change their mind, as they seem to believe that only people in the Attorney General's office have special powers that make it okay for them to see the websites in question and make sure they're "bad" for the rest of us. If, as expected, this happens, then the CDT could sue in state court, but they say they're going to wait and see for now.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
uhhhh
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: uhhhh
First off, if they're kiddie porn, then they should be reported to whoever is hosting the material. Then, the site should be taken offline and those responsible arrested. Telling an ISP they should block it, instead of actually taking it offline is bad.
Second, there should be some sort of review process. By keeping it closed, no one knows if Pennsylvania is really taking down kiddie porn, or if they're blocking sites that express viewpoints they disagree with.
[ link to this | view in thread ]