Bad laws, bad code, bad behavior | Perspectives | CNET News.com: "A congressional hearing on Internet porn last week illustrates what happens when politicians try to ban technology they don't like or understand.
The topic of Thursday's meeting of the House of Representatives' consumer protection subcommittee was a bill intended to require that programs like Kazaa and Grokster obtain parental consent before installation. Peer-to-peer software is starting 'to lure our children from the perceived safety of the family living room out into the dangers of the Internet wilderness,' subcommittee chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., warned.
The only problem: The bill that Stearns and his colleagues suggest as a solution is so broadly worded that it regulates far more than just peer-to-peer applications. Anyone distributing instant-messaging programs, File Transfer Protocol software or Internet Relay Chat clients would have to follow a complicated set of regulations to be published by the Federal Trade Commission, which might as well be renamed the Federal Software Regulatory Commission."
This would/could also impact live online reference service to patrons.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
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