Wtf?
The US Gov’t is subpoenaing online search engines for ‘initial discovery’ viz. COPA, eg. “internet child porn”. Sounds good, this is “for the Children”, right?
But waitaminnit, are we talking about:
1) eliminating porn made with children, or
2) restricting children’s access to porn.
The former we can all agree with, but the latter does not share even slightly widespread approval, esp. in the Industrialized (“First”) World. Remember– pix of naked ppl having sex can be seen on the sides of buses in Italy… within sight of the Vatican, no less. The USA’s (professed) social puritannical distaste for sex & sensuality is only matched in fervor by theocratic third-world republics like, oh let’s see… Iraq & Taliban Afghanistan.
So first, let’s de-confuse the issue:
COPA is about #2, not #1.
So we’re already starting out with non-unanimity of perspective.
Next, the USA Gov’t is attempting an intrusion into Civil Liberties that are clearly protected in codified, long-standing law.
Make no mistake– if the Gov’t can easily access Google/Yahoo/MSN/etc. server-logs at will, your every query will eventually be tracked back to you. And you thought that FBI’s snooping in ppl’s library habits was avoidable by doing it online… not any more. This is very much technically feasible, as all those users of KaZaA learned to their chagrin, when they were subpoenaed for trading MP3′s. “But I was on dial-up with a nickname!” Nice try, bub. Ever heard of your network card? That’s a unique identifier, which M$ (for example) uses in their GUID in every Word/Excel/etc document you make.
The “Slippery Slope”
The argument that any Gov’t action in pursuit of enforcing a law is ‘a priori acceptable’ is not tenable. All USA laws (& their adjudicated enforceability) are based on precept. Practically, this means any gradual erosion of personal liberties in the USA sets-up a “slippery slope” allowing additional, further incremental erosions.
This is happening right now, (ie, not a “past event”) when we refer to the current US Gov’t disregard of the nearly world-wide acceptance of the Geneva Convention. First it denied pain-relief medicine to injured prisoners, then it was ‘waterboarding’, etc…. all of which are being considered “legal” in the US, & all of which are not only destroying the Geneva Convention, but have even caused strong concern in the US’s own military hierarchy (if USA tortures prisoners, then captured USA troops will be tortured as well).
The USA Government’s ability to lead is based on trust, & adjudicated by law. Querying a set of server logs from Google is only 1 small step from doing the kind of widespread cross-referenced keyword searches that NSA specializes in. Since the US Gov’t has currently felt no need to be legal in wiretapping its own citizens, the only possible reason they’re using due legal process with Google is probably the fact that Google has fantastic firewalls, blocking NSA intrusion.
Let’s hope Google’s legal firewalls are similarly robust.
…& oh, by the way… speaking of erosion of Civil & Privacy laws… that’s the precept on which “A Woman’s Right to Choose” is based as well (read: abortion)… which is the main focus of controversy re. the current Supreme Court nominee Alito.
Interesting how all this is happening at the same time, huh?
-nevertheless-