Cuomo's New Plan: A Good Idea Or A Chance For More Grandstanding?
from the that's-not-ridiculous dept
As part of NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's grandstanding against child porn, he's mostly been making silly threats against the wrong parties in ways that don't actually help stop child porn (and could make it worse). However, his latest announcement actually sounds a lot more reasonable. His office is putting together a database of offending photos, and letting social networks compare uploads to the database to try to stop the uploads of known offending photos. I would imagine that it also records who was trying to upload that content. Some care would need to be taken to make sure that this effort really does focus on actually offending images -- one thing that makes such an effort tricky. I also do wonder if it makes sense for a gov't agency to be putting together the database, rather than having it done by the industry itself. On top of that, given Cuomo's earlier grandstanding and his usual methods, you have to expect that it would be long before Cuomo would start threatening any social network that doesn't use his system with some sort of bogus (but very, very public) legal threats. In other words, when the gov't (especially someone like Cuomo) sets up a system like this, how long until he starts acting like it's mandatory, rather than optional?
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Filed Under: andrew cuomo, database, grandstanding
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Hopefully they would only store hashes or digital fingerprints but just how many pixels/metadata would need to be changed before a comparison would fail??
Most sites have an abuse button or mechanism for reporting inappropriate or illegal content and most legitimate site communities I have no doubt would use it. Maybe making an effective (and rapid) framework for traceing and passing such an images use to the authorities would be more usefull in the long run?
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Oh, gods help us all.
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Welcome one and all!
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So this would only identify photos that were already identified, categorized, and placed in a database?
Not only does it sound like a great job for pervs, but shouldn't the focus be on people that are creating the child porn in the first place?
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He wants it all for himself?
It should be destroyed, not saved somewhere for someone to hack.
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Place your bets: 0-30 minutes or 31-60 minutes?
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I'm not saying this would necessarily work, but I doubt they would be THAT stupid.
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As a SysAdmin, I frequently get the unenviable task of searching corporate firewalls for undesirables like these, using search criteria against the firewall logs.
Perhaps they should try an alliance/contracting with a search provider like Google to do the same?
My $0.02 anyway. :)
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Hmmmm
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Slow it down
Child Pornography is a bad thing and should be prosecuted. But when you have a crime crusader you usually have a small group trying to force their will on the rest of us (prohibition). While socially responsible and caring people just ignore whatever we find offensive. Face the facts Attorney General(s) that Prostitution, Drugs, Gambling and looking at pretty girls naked is not going away and you will never stop it because it is a choice and always will be. You either go there or you don't.
Concentrate on real internet crime like fraud, con games, defamation of character and slander. Earn your keep and stop hanging with the fringe groups.
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The crime he's going after is not the problem. Reasonable people can and do argue that prostitution, drugs, gambling, and porn should be legal. I'm sure you're not saying child porn should be legal though. It really is terrible and really should be fought against. It's just that this particular method of doing so is questionable. And Cuomo's motives are very much in doubt.
Concentrate on real internet crime like fraud, con games, defamation of character and slander.
All important, but I don't agree with your implication that child porn is not a real crime and/or should not be addressed by law enforcement.
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Good luck with that
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Talking Point
Then I thought about it a little deeper and realized for the program to work, not only would there be a database, but it would have to be an open database accessed by any ISP/Website for comparison purposes.
I now doubt that they ever expect this to become reality but as a campaign talking point (no way it could go into effect before November) it has value.
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If I tried to report a web site for having child porn images, they'd have me charged before I even finished explaining how I found them.
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Last I knew, even the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children doesn't have their own database of images, they work with the FBI.
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