SCO Head Wants To Ban Public WiFi To Stop Porn

from the that'll-help dept

Last month, Utah's governor signed a resolution urging Congress to pass a law that would set up "family" and "adult" channels on the internet as a way to keep kids from seeing boobies. The resolution was based on the work of a group called CP80, which advocates mandating porn be put on its own port, and is headed by the chairman of everybody's favorite tech company, the SCO Group, Ralph Yarro. Now, Yarro's told a Utah legislative committee that open WiFi networks should be banned, and all WiFi networks should have filtering software to keep out porn, or be password-protected, so that if any porn makes its way onto a minor's computer, the network provider can be fined. That seems little odd, like fining the state's transportation department for building roads that people might drive on to go buy porn somewhere. But the suggestions didn't stop there: a BYU law professor says the state should circumvent the constitution not by forcing ISPs to block porn, but rather by giving tax incentives to those that do. One state senator says that the key is "a statewide education program so citizens can learn about the real problem with the uncontrolled porn in our society, mainly coming through the Internet." We'd imagine that advertising the availability of porn on the internet would run counter to these people's goals, but apparently not.
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  • identicon
    Jeff, 19 Apr 2007 @ 5:37pm

    Internet Porn

    I think an easier solution would be to mandate all porn sites with .sex. Easy to block if you don't want it, easy to find it if you do. No rights are violated. I also don't understand why ISP's don't offer to block it as a service for a few extra bucks a month.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Matt, 19 Apr 2007 @ 6:18pm

    another protect the children bill.

    if parents are afraid their child is going to be looking at porn, that parent should go through the steps necessary to block their home computers from it, before they complain about public Wifi.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    keving79, 19 Apr 2007 @ 6:20pm

    I think everything should be banned except Adult Baby fiction!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2007 @ 6:26pm

    Ahh Hell. My tax dollars at work. CP80 is a joke. Yarro needs to find another way to waste his time, like sue IBM. I really can't wait for the lawsuits after these dingbat legislators at the Utah Capitol waste my money in another dumb legal challenge.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Anonymous Poster (profile), 19 Apr 2007 @ 6:51pm

    Wow. That's just exceedingly stupid.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jacob Buck, 19 Apr 2007 @ 7:18pm

    instead of fining the isp if porn gets on a minor's computer, they should take the minor away from its parents and put in a home with no electricity. its the only way to stop it from happening again. save the children!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Tuan Tran, 19 Apr 2007 @ 7:25pm

    i'm not against porn or for it...but isn't porn a multi billion dollar "empire" / big ginormous business that makes billions and billions of dolars each and every year??? don't understand how blocking it from wifi is a big issue. a person can still go to a cyber cafe and pay money to use comps. and internet and look at porn ?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    DNINC, 19 Apr 2007 @ 7:30pm

    OMG

    Ok this is another way for government to chastise peoples kids because parents forgot how to be a parent and Parent their kids, BEAT THEIR ASSES!, Tell them thats bad!, Ground them, then beat their ass some more, stop letting the government raise your damn children people!

    Im tired of bad ass kids running rampet all over stores and talking to their parents as if they were older than them, Parents need to stop being soft and stop letting the government tell you not to beat the hell outta your children. It worked back in the old days, less crime, less drug usage, and more business owners came out of those times, Now you have drug heads, wide spread gangs, Military Troops killing each other and raping and killing innocent kids, stupid idiots spending over 10 grand on Rims on a 1500 dollar car because they saw it on TV, anyway i got off the issue..

    Leave the WIFI alone, Internet was meant to be free in the first place, ISP's Weren't suppose to be charging us to use it, Before it crossed over from BBS they promised it will continue to be free, since the government found a way to make their pockets fat with the internet they've been finding anyway to convince the public they need more tax funds to find ways to tax us for more stuff. We are the most backwards country on the planet.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Kyros, 19 Apr 2007 @ 7:46pm

    Somewhere theres a man that looks like yoda sitting around pondering how to waste more of our tax money. He's probably next to the head of sony someplace in hell.

    That aside, people need to raise their own children. if they don't like such said porn, then either teach the child to not go to it, or install blocking software.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2007 @ 8:25pm

    holy *hit, i thought porn came from cameras

    wow. the internet can take pictures and print them and even put them on betamax tapes now??? why would i ever buy a camera again? *ssholes! lol

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Heywood Jablowme, 19 Apr 2007 @ 8:35pm

    If it weren't for porn on the internet...

    We'd all still be dialing up.... sure, tons of middle aged men living in their mother's basements are hopelessly addicted to it -- but there has to be a cost for innovation, right?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bob Knight, 19 Apr 2007 @ 9:20pm

    Wifi Porn

    LOL my nephew surfs porn with his psp on wifi, block that.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Newob, 19 Apr 2007 @ 9:34pm

    Uncontrolled porn!

    "so citizens can learn about the real problem with the uncontrolled porn in our society" ...

    Erm, "uncontrolled porn" like when you take a bath or have sex. What will uncontrolled porn do to society? I guess they mean everybody will be touching themselves instead of killing each other or something.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    wtf, 19 Apr 2007 @ 9:58pm

    man, seriously this becoming very fucking annoying.. regulate porn,drinking, or video game, and movies.. list goes on, what is next? we can't jerk off? because some religion fucker believe is a sin? fuck you.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2007 @ 10:09pm

    somebody save the children

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chris, 19 Apr 2007 @ 11:29pm

    As if Utah didn't have a bad enough rep already.

    Cry bitch and moan all you want, but thankfully Sprint owns a gigantic portion of the licensed WiFi bands, and their campaign contributions are much much much larger than any bible thumping disillusioned religous fanatic from Utah. (key words people, key words)

    As always these morons go about the same agenda that if you make it disappear, it just doesn't exist. Protect the kiddiez from figuring out anything on their own, don't expose them to the real world and they'll turn out right as rain. WAKE THE BLOODY HELL UP!!!!!!!!!!!! The more taboo you make something out to be the more interest it generates. EDUCATE youth about porn, and the destructive impact it can have on the development of a normal, healthy, sexually active, relationship. OR acknowledge that we made prostitution illegal, and doing the exact same thing in front of a video camera should be as well. OR realize the fact that the government doesn’t care what the general public can do so long as they’re able to tax the hell out of it. The only difference in prostitution, and pornography, is someone gets a paycheck, and someone gets cash, that’s it. The only difference in legalizing alcohol and legalizing marijuana is that it’s 100 times easier to produce your own marijuana, than it is to grow and distill your own hops and barley to create beer, or potatoes for vodka, or grapes for wine… Government gets to tax everyone in the alcohol industry, if you legalize marijuana people can just grow it at home.

    While this guys at it, he might as well try to get some laws banning the hip-hop & rap culture, the fashion industry, cosmopolitan magazine, Hollywood, TV, books, word of mouth, and the constitution. I’m entitled to my right to be a perverse, lude, vulgar individual, and as far as I'm concerned you can piss off if you think otherwise.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lastdon, 19 Apr 2007 @ 11:45pm

    What About Blood

    Hey great maybe we should find a way to stop these kids watching the intelligent & calculated bloodshed which adults perpetrate.

    Or just maybe when these kids actually grow up watching too much porn, they might be slightly less perverted than we are.

    And for those who do not like the idea of kids watching porn.. grow up.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Alan, 20 Apr 2007 @ 3:10am

    This is a parental responsibility. If children are raised properly this would not be an issue.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Fred Flint, 20 Apr 2007 @ 4:18am

    I Was Just Wondering...

    .... what is "the real problem with the uncontrolled porn in our society"?

    Everyone understands the problem with child porn but I was just curious what might be "the real problem" with adult porn?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Just Commenting, 20 Apr 2007 @ 5:04am

    Ridiculous

    Hey, I have an idea. Can out we detect when someone is using electricity to create porn and fine the electric company?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    dualBooter, 20 Apr 2007 @ 5:32am

    Can I be one of the first to say...

    Can I be one of the first to say....

    Who C A R E S what the head of SCO thinks?!?
    (except for other people at SCO, perhaps)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Undisclosed in the cold grey north, 20 Apr 2007 @ 5:37am

    Me thinks me smells a Crimson Kipper

    "is headed by the chairman of everybody's favorite tech company, the SCO Group, Ralph Yarro" AND "open WiFi networks should be banned,"

    Outside of the various rants already brought forth did anybody notice these little tidbits and put the two together?

    As there is no Illuminati and there are no conspiracies or collusion or FUD, then what an we make of it?
    Basic all american business practices? Anything to make a buck is fine and dany and to hell with everyone and everything else?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2007 @ 5:52am

      Re: Me thinks me smells a Crimson Kipper

      Open WiFi should be banned? So my neighbors that don't use WEP or WPA on their wireless network should be arrested? Why don't the do more about the men that have many wives, some underage?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    YouKnowNothing, 20 Apr 2007 @ 5:49am

    Won't someone PLEASE think of the CHILDREN!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jacket, 20 Apr 2007 @ 9:27am

    Sorry...

    Sorry if this sounds dumb, but, um...what's wrong with porn?

    I mean, really?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Chris, 20 Apr 2007 @ 11:33am

      Re: Sorry...

      Well Jacket, it's a sin. Whether or not you agree with that doesn't matter, because everyone on capitol hill is going to trot along with whatever the majority of voters out there cares about. It just so happens that most voters are religious, and religion likes to cause havok for everyone who isn't, or isn't of their belief set.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Kevin Bondelli, 23 Apr 2007 @ 5:01pm

    This drives me nuts so much...

    I had to write a post about it and the Boston censorship on my own blog. Thanks for posting this story.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike D, 25 Apr 2007 @ 8:33am

    wt..

    you dont think seriously that if its put on its own port.. someones gonna configure a way for anyone and everyone to view it regardless.. now come on people.. i can get 5,000 dollar programs cracked online for free.. someone can surely create a way to get around this.. with something as versatile as the internet and WiFi.. this isnt possible. it will never fly.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Apr 2007 @ 8:37am

    ban public wifi? lmao. right.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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