State Politicians Don't Understand P2P Either
from the *sigh* dept
What is it with the difficulty politicians seem to have understanding what a P2P file sharing network is, and why none of the networks have control over the content being shared? The latest is that a group of 40 states have teamed up to write a threatening letter to file sharing companies accusing them of all sorts of bad things. In whose name are they doing this? Even though the courts have recognized file sharing networks for what they are, it appears that the state attorneys general seem to believe that they can ignore what the law says when the entertainment industry starts telling them how evil file sharing networks are. Update: Ernest Miller asks, "why shouldn't the state attorneys general condemn email and FTP as well? An awful lot of child porn is shared via email. Shouldn't email providers be doing more to stop it?"
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There's nothing wrong with p2p
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More illegal companies
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Is there really so much?
Is there even much of it? Perhaps (though I imagine it would be hard to meter), "an awful large proportion of child porn is shared via email," but seriously, how much child porn is there, as opposed to, say, discussions of plans for future terrorist attacks or mob discussions of whacking someone?
I know that flashing the "child porn" argument gets attention (and what parent isn't horrified by the thought?) but seriously, even our local man-bites-dog paper has very few cases of this kind of child abuse -- even when it takes its articles from all over the USA!
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