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David Weigel | September 25, 2006

Jeff A. Taylor previews the day that the DOJ will hoard information from your Internet activity to make sure you're not one of those nasty pedophiles.

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|9.25.06 @ 3:47PM|#

Yet one more reason to use ip proxies, till open proxies are banned...worldwide.

|9.25.06 @ 4:22PM|#

Child porn, not terrorism, is the beast that will eat our privacy and take away our civil rights. Anyone who stands up for some sanity on the issue is immediately shouted down as a closet pervert, so we have little defense against its attacks.

Two issues make this a problem. First, is the fanaticism of the advocates of these programs. I am perfectly willing to admit that Constitution is not a suicide pact and there has to be some balance between civil liberties and safety; when we are talking about fanatical lunatics who are trying to kill thousands of Americans. Give up my privacy and civil rights to stop perverts who could be caught by running stings anyway? I don't think so. But there people out there who believe that no civil right should trump the government's need to catch perverts and there is no reasoning with them. Second, is the willful technical ignorance of prosecutors in this area. Prosecutors and judges in this country routinely act as if IP addresses were fixed to one person and act as "a social security number on the internet" (a real quote from a U.S. attorney to a judge in a suppression hearing for a child porn case). Search warrants are routinely being given on bad technical information and no probable cause because our judges and prosecutors don't know and don't care to know the technical realities of the internet. If they actually followed probable cause in these cases it would be much harder to get warrants and they would be back to doing the honey pot schemes Taylor speaks of. I find the whole thing really disturbing and wonder how long it will be before the fanaticism and ignorance in this area spreads to other hot button areas of prosecution.

|9.25.06 @ 4:31PM|#

Two issues make this a problem. First, is the fanaticism of the advocates of these programs. I am perfectly willing to admit that Constitution is not a suicide pact and there has to be some balance between civil liberties and safety; when we are talking about fanatical lunatics who are trying to kill thousands of Americans. Give up my privacy and civil rights to stop perverts who could be caught by running stings anyway? I don't think so. But there people out there who believe that no civil right should trump the government's need to catch perverts and there is no reasoning with them.

You really think these two issues are all that different, John?

|9.25.06 @ 4:34PM|#

David,

Unless and until old perverts vow to kill every American on sight and succeed in killing thousands of Americans and make attempts at getting chemical and nuclear weapons, yes I think terrorism and child porn are apples and oranges.

|9.25.06 @ 4:53PM|#

"Unless and until old perverts vow to kill every American on sight and succeed in killing thousands of Americans"

The problem is that there is a considerable percentage of the US population (including elected officials) who actually believe that "sexual predators" and the "child pornography industry" kidnap, rape, and murder tens of thousands of children each year and the federal government is at minimum apathetic or at worst actively complicit in the practice. Philip Jenkins' Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America covers this quite well.

|9.25.06 @ 4:56PM|#

Equally disgusting is the fact that if you are convicted of being a pervert in pretty much any way, even after you are released from prison, you are forced to disclose to the entire neighbourhood in which you live that you are some kind of pervert.

If it is really believed that you cannot be rehabilitated, you should remain in prison. Otherwise you should be free to live your life without being tracked or forced to disclose that you were once a criminal.

|9.25.06 @ 5:13PM|#

John, I'd say instead that child porn and terrorism are only part of the beast that will eat our privacy and take away our civil rights.

Everyone's got a boogeyman that they want the government to go after. The problem is that bad laws don't go away and as each group takes over and gets their way we ratchet ourselves further and further from a free society.

|9.25.06 @ 5:53PM|#

Lowdog,

You are right. IF someone goes to jail for burglary and then gets out and kills someone, the public doesn't scream that all burglers should be registered for life. Yet, someone has a sex offense and comits murder, that is what they scream for. We certainly should punish sexual perversion involving children, but I don't think that someone convicted of that offense should be deprived of their ability to live in society once they are released.

|9.25.06 @ 6:15PM|#

"We certainly should punish sexual perversion involving children, but I don't think that someone convicted of that offense should be deprived of their ability to live in society once they are released."

Actually I'm somewhat sympathetic to notification lists when it comes to child molesters. It's the lists for other forms of "perversion"- like a drunken public piss, or sleeping with one's 15 yr old girlfriend- that bug me.

damaged justice|9.25.06 @ 6:31PM|#

C'mon, it's not so hard to keep the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse straight: Drugs, terrorism, child porn, and money laundering.

|9.25.06 @ 6:49PM|#

dj,

Don't forget online gambling.

For the government the beauty of kiddie porn is that absolutely noone can call them on their claims. Since it is highly illegal to possess and by legal fiat an act of abuse to view it, there haven't been any independent checks on whether the claims of the material's ubiquity are true. I personally have my doubts. After all the war lies, why should I believe this?

|9.25.06 @ 7:52PM|#

andy - yes, the folks that aren't actual child molesters should definitely be given their rights back once they've served their time, but if child molesters are such a menace, why are they allowed back on the street at all?

Look at that case of the college girl from Minnesota (or was it Michigan?)...the guy who kidnapped, raped, and stabbed her to death had been previously convicted of violence against women (I forget the exact crime(s)). But instead of keeping someone who has obvious mental issues, especially issues of violence against women, in jail, they let him go. I'm sure the fact that he had to tell all his neighbours in South (or was it North, again, I don't remember all the details) Dakota that he was a sex offender really helped that poor girl.

I imagine there just wasn't enough room to keep him locked down, what with all the dopers in prison. Give me a fucking break. Just how messed up can our priorities be in this country?