Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 16:21:02 -0400
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: More on pornography as a consequence of p2p?
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
The purported linkage of pornography to networks is getting worse.
Per http://www.iowastatedaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/09/08/3f5be89a63245
there's a Senate hearing on Tuesday on "Pornography, Technology and Process:
Problems and Solutions on Peer-to-Peer Networks." One of the people
testifying, Prof. Doug Jacobson of Iowa State, is quoted in the article
as saying "[Peer-to-peer] is like anything -- it's a tool. There are
few legitimate uses of peer-to-peer networks." [ DUMB DUMB djf]
There's also misleading news coverage. On a local all-news radio
station (WCBS-AM), I heard a heard a brief story saying that users
at New York universities were downloading a lot of pornography and
chlid pornography. They gave no details, but cited a report by
"Media Defender". It turns out that Media Defender is primarily
an anti-p2p company that is apparently employed by the RIAA, which
was not mentioned in the story. I don't know if this was due to
a misleading press release or if I was simply experiencing the joys
of sound byte news coverage.
--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb