New York AG continues his assault on Usenet

New York Attorney General Cuomo is out to make a name for himself at any cost. That’s the stock and trade of the  hyper ambitious pol in our times. The Third Pipe team supports the fullest prosecution, and persecution with extreme prejudice of those who exploit children. We do not support burning down the entire forest to rid it of it’s wolves. Hunting the wolves one by one is tedious and time consuming, too time consuming for a politician in a hurry to run for higher office. Mr Cuomo now has pressed AT&T into taking down access to a significant portion of Usenet because of what might be found there instead of directly prosecuting a tiny minority who use the Usenet to violate the law. This will effect every AT&T subscriber, not just those in New York.

The problem with burning down the forest is that smart wolves will easily outrun the flames. Then the wolves will be more dispersed and more difficult to hunt. And there will be no forest.

AT&T spokesman Marty Richter told me that the company is going to cease offering the alt.* hierarchy, which include sex-themed newsgroups but also ones such as alt.binaries.pictures.aviation, alt.binaries.drwho.pictures, and alt.binaries.pictures.vehicles. Customers will continue to be able to access third-party Usenet providers.

AT&T’s existing policy has been to investigate all complaints of child porn hosted on its servers–and promptly remove any illegal images–within three business days. That will not change. On Thursday, AT&T said it will enter into an agreement with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to consult the group’s lists in addition to complaints received from other sources.(Cnet)