Deleting Online Predators Act

[Amadeus]

Taken from this site

 

All in favor of hysteria, panic and misinformation, say "aye"

 

Given the recent outcry over MySpace, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the U.S. House passed the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) with an overwhelming majority. But I can certainly be disappointed. With a 410-15 vote (410-15!!!) Thursday, politicians approved the bill, which will block access to social networks and Internet chat rooms in most federally funded schools and libraries. "Social networking sites, best known by the popular examples of MySpace, Friendster and Facebook, have literally exploded in popularity in just a few short years," Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican and one of DOPA's original sponsors, said of the bill. Today these sites "have become a haven for online sexual predators who have made these corners of the Web their own virtual hunting ground.".......

 

......While certainly well-intentioned, DOPA -- like most Internet legislation Congress has scribbled up -- is laughably imprecise. It's so overly broad that it denies access to any area of the Internet where users may post home pages or other information. Here's how DOPA defines social networking sites:

 

(i) is offered by a commercial entity;

(ii) permits registered users to create an on-line profile that includes detailed personal information;

(iii) permits registered users to create an on-line journal and share such a journal with other users;

(iv) elicits highly-personalized information from users; and

(v) enables communication among users.

 

Great work, Congress, you've just barred anyone who depends upon their local libraries for access to the Web from viewing eBay, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Amazon.

 

As one might imagine, educators and librarians aren't exactly thrilled with DOPA. Said American Library Association President Leslie Berger, "This unnecessary and overly broad legislation will hinder students’ ability to engage in distance learning and block library computer users from accessing a wide array of essential Internet applications including instant messaging, email, wikis and blogs. ... Under DOPA, people who use library and school computers as their primary conduits to the Internet will be unfairly blocked from accessing some of the web’s most powerful emerging technologies and learning applications. As libraries are already required to block content that is 'harmful to minors' under the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), DOPA is redundant and unnecessary legislation."

 

The Bill:

 

dopa.house.final.072706.pdf

 

Strangely enough, there's hardly anything about this in the mainstream media, despite the fact that it will affect millions of Internet users in the US - maybe their Congress isn't proud of it? Seems, America not only wants to be world police these days, but Internet Police as well - oh dear....