...I coincidentally came across this guest editorial by Ernest Istook, the erstwhile Oklahoma congressman who principally authored the Children's Internet Protection Act.
Funny how some things-and some people-just don't change. Years out of office, he still beats the drum for his burdensome and unworkable solution to what was then (in 2000) and still is now a largely nonexistent problem. A dozen years ago, there was no such thing as a computer program capable of making subjective judgments about the data it processes-such as whether such data meets the legal definition of obscenity or "harmful to minors"-and there is still no such thing today. And he's shocked-shocked!-that more and more public library systems around the country have taken the route of responsible stewardship of their increasingly scarce resources and opted out of the E-Rate program rather than spend more money complying with CIPA than their E-Rate discount would be worth.
Poor Mr. Istook. He's just more evidence that boxer Muhammad Ali's famous quote is truly a sage observation of the human condition. Istook still sees the world the same as he did in 2000, and has thus wasted the past twelve years of his life.
Saturday, March 03, 2012
The problem wasn't so much what he was watching...
...as this story recounting the arrest of a laptopper at a public library in Loudoun County, Virginia explains. Rather, it was what he was (alleged to have been) doing while he was watching it.
Of course, the reporter states flatly that he was using the library's Wi-Fi at the end of the piece without so much as a shred of documentation to support either that claim or the obvious inference that the suspect pulled the offensive materials down over the connection. Hmmm...I didn't read in there anything about a forensic analysis of the computer having been done yet to show the stuff wasn't on the hard drive beforehand, did you?
In fairness to our intrepid correspondent above, however, I slipped over to the library's website to check out the available information on the nature of the connection and yes, it's unfiltered. So draw your own conclusion.
Of course, the reporter states flatly that he was using the library's Wi-Fi at the end of the piece without so much as a shred of documentation to support either that claim or the obvious inference that the suspect pulled the offensive materials down over the connection. Hmmm...I didn't read in there anything about a forensic analysis of the computer having been done yet to show the stuff wasn't on the hard drive beforehand, did you?
In fairness to our intrepid correspondent above, however, I slipped over to the library's website to check out the available information on the nature of the connection and yes, it's unfiltered. So draw your own conclusion.
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