SCO Chairman Fights to Ban Open Wireless Networks 343
cachedout writes "SCO's Ralph Yarro had the floor yesterday at the Utah Technology Commission meeting in front of Utah lawmakers. Yarro proposed that free wireless sites and subscribers should be held responsible should any porn be delivered to minors because hotspots are apparently where kids go to watch porn all day long. Yarro told lawmakers that open wireless access points should be made a crime because we have an Internet out of control."
In soviet russia... (Score:3, Funny)
Ah come on... (Score:5, Interesting)
And I don't mean
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Re:Ah come on... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh noes! (Score:4, Funny)
Good thing there aren't any worse problems in the world to concern ourselves with.
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Actually, "boobies" aren't the problem - we're ok with boobies. Look at any movie, or even TV show or magazine, and you'll see a fair amount of boob. Maybe not a full nipple, but just about all of the rest of it.
Have you seen a movie which is rated "R" due in part to nudity lately? 90% chance that's because you get a glimpse of a boobie. The other 10% are ass-cheeks.
It's the stuff below the belly button that's the problem. God forbid that the children find internet porn which shows someone with a body par
Re:Oh noes! (Score:5, Insightful)
I think SCO and the "think of the children" crowd have the same basic fear: people givin' it away for free, without signing a contract.
Re:Ah come on... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ah come on... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ah come on... (Score:4, Insightful)
In an ideal world, you'd have your stupid ideas on a cardboard sign and be shouting them from a street corner.
I run an open, free, isolated wireless network specifically for the convenience of others. What the hell business is it of yours if it is open, other than if you want to use it? How about, you look at your instincts to regulate other people's choices of sharing resources and realize they are the cries of our worst enemy, the mommy-government proponent?
Man I am sick and tired of people who think its OK to force others to do what they think is right in areas where no harm is being done to anyone else.
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Re:Ah come on... (Score:4, Funny)
This cry for civility from the same person who said "In an ideal world, you'd just be held liable for being too stupid to secure your access point"?
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Re:Ah come on... (Score:5, Interesting)
Why not just ban children next?
Re:Ah come on... (Score:5, Funny)
If I could just have a moment of your time, are you aware of all the dangers faced by children in society these days? Simple things like colds and scrapes and growing pains, to the frightening reality of paedophiles, child molesters, apathetic parents and abandonment, gangs and violent computer games and widespread pornography on the internet. Don't you think something needs to be done about it all?
I'm asking people to sign this petition I have here. I'm looking for signatures to convince the government to do something about all these problems once and for all. The solution is actually surprisingly simple, but our elected officials don't seem to have realised it, yet. All we have to do is ban children.
Yes, ban children. It's guaranteed to work! Wait, don't go! It'll really work! All you have to do is get rid of all these bloody kids and then you won't have to think of the children ever again, because there won't be any more children to think of! Isn't that wonderful?!
Oh shit, she's getting the cops! *runs*
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Instead, the government is further down the road to remove power from parents and "take care" of the matter itself. Needless to say, as usual, when government tries to do what it is not supposed to do it uses heavy ha
Re:Ah come on... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ah come on... (Score:5, Informative)
Basically it goes something like, someone somewhere decides what sites are and aren't porn. Based on the tags they assign those sites, parents are able to block whatever they choose not to allow their children to view. The thing is, Yarro wants the government (eventually) to mandate that all internet sites use Think Atomic's ratings system and filtering setup.
How you mandate this kind of ratings system beyond U.S. borders is beyond me. I would assume that the majority of porn on the net comes from (or is at least hosted in) countries other than the U.S. (Russian spammers and their bot-nets?). Anyways, like I said Yarro is in a dream-world, SCO is in the death throws (next quarter expect the NASDAQ to de-list them as they've already filed for a reverse split a year or so ago), and Ralphie needs to realize that *PUBLIC* wi-fi spots are the last place teenagers wanna be looking at porn...
Re:Ah come on... (Score:5, Informative)
The countries with the biggest porn industries are (in order):
1. China
2. South Korea
3. Japan
4. USA
The rest aren't worth listing, because even if you added up all their revenues, that number would still be smaller than the USA's.
So.... I guess you're right that most of the porn on the net comes from non-US countries, but Russia isn't even in the running (at #14).
P.S. "Adult" web hosting is a big business in the USA, since so many hosters won't touch it with a ten foot pole.
Re:Ah come on... (Score:5, Interesting)
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For the mods:
SFW = Suitable For Work
Hence:
SFW? = Is that link you just posted with no descriptive comment suitable for viewing at work?
A perfectly valid comment.
Slashdot. Grr.
Out of YOUR control (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank you very much.
"I had this instant flash of pornographic trash on my computer that just started popping up," Brown said. "I could not turn it off. As fast as I would turn something off, something would pop on."
He had to turn off his computer to stop it, he said.
It could happen to anyone, said Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City.
"I've never opened a site in my life, but what pops up is unbelievable," he said.
JUST from entering a search phrase? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just about everyone here knows how those pop-ups happen. You're either at the site or you've been infected by some crap (most likely from going to one of those sites).
Re:JUST from entering a search phrase? (Score:5, Funny)
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He has to pull his head out of it first.
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Other popups, on the other hand...
Maybe this SCO fellow was quietly and publically bragging about his virility? Perhaps this is a veiled Viagra spam through the court system? Hmm.
What!!!! (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Out of YOUR control (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Out of YOUR control (Score:5, Funny)
lol (Score:5, Funny)
Now wtf did that have to do with wireless again? or was it about Wii? or was it about cellphones? Bah i lost track
bummer, no mod points today
I suspect i get more than my share by NOT using them all
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If you ever ahve transmission trouble (Score:5, Funny)
also bad:
"Tranny fluid"
"tranny problems"
or
"Chicks with dicks."
True story (Score:3, Funny)
medically speaking (Score:4, Funny)
They have a name for the medical operation of changing a woman into a man... it's called an "addedictomy".
Re:Out of YOUR control (Score:4, Insightful)
Riiiight. Next time don't click on the "I'm feeling lucky!" button so quick.
Didn't he look at the context for the search results before clicking blindly on the first link that came up? Most adults realize that there are many innocuous words that can have multiple meanings. You can't type in "head", "facial", or "blow" into a search engine without expecting *some* possibility of suprises, and google, for example, will filter results unless you override it in the preferences, and it usually does a pretty good job.
I wonder what he typed in to magically circumvent the usual filters? And why is he blaming wireless access points for his own click-happy actions?
"And then, he said, he got caught up in a pornado -- sexually explicit pop-up windows took over his computer."
Let's look at a few hypothetical options for solving this problem (and there are many more): 1) install a pop-up blocker and/or use a modern web browser, 2) make unprompted pornographic popups illegal, or 3) outlaw unsecured wireless access points.
When personal or targetted solutions are possible, why do politicians always gravitate towards the most intrusive and broadest legislative solution as the answer? I don't even see the connection between open wireless access points and the problem this guy describes.
I have to complement him on the term, though. "Pornado". That's a good one.
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Sounds like Yarro is about to flee his sinking ship and swim in the direction of these guys: http://hotspot.t-mobile.com/ [t-mobile.com]
The business plan:
1. Outlaw free hotspots ("Save the Children!").
2. Offer proprietary for-fee coldspots with built-in filtering.
3. Become a defacto standard and virtual monopoly.
4. Profit!
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Plausible (Score:2)
Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Funny)
You misspelled "misspelled".
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:4, Insightful)
Out of financial control.
Why the hell would they want a bunch of people using a free open connection when they could legislate it so each person would have to PAY for their own connection?
I think we know what's out of control (Score:2)
Re:I think we know what's out of control (Score:5, Informative)
Controlling the internet is easy. (Score:5, Funny)
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I thought websites required credit cards or something to verify ages before they showed you naughty stuff.
I, for one, am very skeptical that there is any threat of minors seeing naked people online. Even with free and anonymous internet access, they'd have to somehow prove they're older than 18. That's not something that one can fake easily(eg: just saying they are that old isn't going to cut it)
Huh? That IS all that's needed for alot of sites? And ther
Re:Controlling the internet is easy. (Score:5, Funny)
Interne out of Control? (Score:2, Insightful)
Examples:
kill 32 people with a legally purchased gun. that's the price of freedom.
insult the president. that's the price of freedom.
remove a president. that's the price of freedom.
WOW - and now they are child-porn fighters (Score:3, Interesting)
"oh look, we are 'thinking of the children' so give us some of ibm's cash already" ?
am i totally out of sync (end of a long workday) or did i nail it ?
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Interstate commerce (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Interstate commerce (Score:5, Insightful)
The net considers censorship as a defect.
The net was designed to route around defects.
he's obviously mistaken (Score:2)
it's a shame to see a man so out of touch with the basics of internet plumbing when he is obviously so in touch with the norms of modern society and the workings of software patents, and with such a general overall harmonious attitude
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Not really..
http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/dir-003/_0401.h tm [bldrdoc.gov]
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html [dxinfocentre.com]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-skip [wikipedia.org]
He should have said... (Score:2)
we have an Internet out of control
He would have been better off with:
We have an internets gone wild and the hot spicy video of underage internet users to prove it!!!!!!11
Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
I believe the technical term is "committee"...
I don't understand human beings. (Score:2)
The world has some seriously fucked up priorities.
Crikey (Score:2)
China Calling (Score:2)
Where the heck are our guys? (Score:4, Insightful)
Every week I see a story about how such-and-such a CEO went in front of such-and-such a commission and spewed lies. When do our guys get to in front of commissions?
--Rob
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1st Amendment Issues (Score:3, Insightful)
He found Naked Young Boys! (Score:2)
Headline should read:
"SCO Chairman Discovers Naked Young Boys On The Internet!"
Along with several Utah politicians, and their "assistants", he'll be studying this further....
Danger of SCO's proposal (Score:4, Insightful)
How to prevent idiocy from gaining ground...Act! (Score:5, Informative)
If their "brain is frying trying to understand the technology involved" (damn!) then the best thing to do is explain it to them, along with the consequences of a bad decision. One could, for example write to a legislator explaining the concept of a popup blocker and the extremely low likelihood of "just entering a search term" causing a "tornado of popups" unless the search term was "I want a tornado of popups to take down my machine".
One could also explain, if one lived in Utah, that one would think very very poorly of any elected official who let SCO of all people railroad them into trying to railroad some unworkable and useless ban on a perfectly legitimate activity (open hotspots) based upon no evidence other than frying brains and luddite morons.
One could also, perhaps best, explain the extremely negative economic impact such legislation would have in the short term (forcing otherwise acceptable mom n' pops to spend money preventing legal activities) and in the long-term by hurting Utah's efforts to modernize its infrastructure, attract new businesses and convince prospective high-tech employers and employees that it isn't a backwards theocratic nuthouse but a modern forward-looking state that values, among other things, freedom of speech and technology at least half as much as it values free guns. (This will work for out-of-staters by the way if phrases along the lines of "I won't bring my money and jobs there...")
The (incredibly poor) Committee page is here [state.ut.us]. The Committee's members are:
Sen. Scott K. Jenkins, Co Chair
Rep. Michael E. Noel, Co Chair
Rep. Roger E. Barrus
Rep. Ralph Becker
Rep. Jim Bird
Rep. Melvin R. Brown
Sen. Mike Dmitrich
Rep. Janice M. Fisher
Rep. Lynn N. Hemingway
Rep. Steven R. Mascaro
Rep. Kay L. McIff
Sen. Darin G. Peterson
Rep. Aaron Tilton
Sen. Carlene M. Walker
Rep. Richard W. Wheeler
Richard C. North, Policy Analyst
Christopher R. Parker, Associate General Counsel
Tracey Fredman, Legislative Secretary
They can be located here [state.ut.us].
Start your e-mailing and phone dialing (faxes are fun too!)
C'mon, all the cool
CP80 (Score:3, Informative)
For those not familiar with it CP80 is a proposal that calls for segregating internet content into "safe" and "unsafe" by legally declaring some ports to be regulated and some unregulated. The regulation model is the "Community Norms" model that the FCC uses to allow the Parents Television Council to tell us all what we can and cannot watch on TV.
Leaving aside the fact that this, li
so.. how many SCO paid wireless hotspots planned? (Score:2)
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Nope, he's wrong AND stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
For instance, you don't arrest the CEO of Chevrolet when a drunk driver smacks into you with his Camaro. You don't arrest factory workers from Stanley tools if someone hits you with a hammer. Why would you place the blame for kiddie porn in the hands of the bandwidth provider.
The only reason SCO comes out against free, open hotspots is because they see the potential for financial benefit from forcing difficult technology on people.
No, no, no (Score:2)
It's all about the tubes, Ralphie. Tell 'em about the tubes!
I call bullshit. (Score:2, Interesting)
1. This issue is so important to him but he can't remember what search term he used? He does not remember what he was doing on the internet and yet he wants to legislate it?
2. Just because you are not techno savvy enough to control what pours into your computer don't assume "the children" can't. They are most likely much more internet and computer capable then he is.
3. Kinda related to number 2 but if you can't figure out how to channel surf without accid
Out of control? (Score:2)
Trouble in Plain City (Score:2)
because I misspelled the search term, all this porn kept
popping up. It was awful!
And all week long, your Plain City youth'll be fritterin' away
I say, your young men'll be fritterin'
Fritterin' away their noontime, suppertime, choretime, too
Turn the wireless on and surf for porn
Oh, ya got lots and lots o' trouble
I'm thinkin' of the kids in the knickerbockers shirttails,
young ones surfin' the web from free wireless hot spots
Ya got trouble, folks, right her
The Bubble (Utah Mormons vs Non-Utah Mormons) (Score:4, Interesting)
Mind you this is not the religion Joseph Smith re-organized. He made it clear man has to get knowledge from God, not from man. The current state of Utah Mormonism is due to years of isolation. Utah Mormons form a tight cliche and as a result, it is hard to break into that cliche for those who are not Mormons, or recent converts into Mormonism.
Sometimes I think if would be good for Utah Mormons to actually leave Utah, and live somewhere else where Mormons are in the minority. Then they would be forced to live with people who do not agree with them, and be able to expand there knowledge of the outside world.
At least that is why I am not in Utah.
(I served an LDS mission in Salt Lake City, which would take a novel to even summerize).
As a Mormon from Florida living in Utah... (Score:5, Informative)
You got the wording wrong, yet quite right.
Yes, there is a big cliché about Utah Mormons. And it would seem you've fallen into it.
Perhaps you did serve in Salt Lake, and perhaps you met some people that follow that trend. I can't deny it - I've met a few myself. But the willingness with which you blindly lump hundreds of thousands of people into such a small group is shocking to say the least.
I'm from Florida myself. Born and bred a southerner with no family ties to Utah and into a quasi-converted family. The first time I came to Utah was for the Missionary Training Center [wikipedia.org] experience in Provo. I don't think that really counts, though, as once you're in you barely go outside for anything. I came back to Provo to attend BYU after two years slogging through the shanty towns around Buenos Aires, and in my last 4 years here in Utah I've found people of very diverse opinions, backgrounds, and ideas.
Then they would be forced to live with people who do not agree with them, and be able to expand there knowledge of the outside world.
Generally speaking, most times I've heard people say this, what they really mean is "I wish these people would think like I do." Well, I'm sorry you didn't find what you think you would here, but this is not so. It would seem you experienced time as a "minority" yourself, living with people who did not agree with you, and it didn't do you much good.
I'll agree that rural parts of Utah are fairly close minded. Yet as one who grew up in and around small towns in Florida and Alabama, I can honestly say that the people I've dealt with in small town Utah have been much more traveled and cultured. (I can't remember how many people asked me what language they speak in Argentina or, better yet, where in Africa Argentina was before I left from Florida. I've never heard those questions in Utah.) You can go to the middle of nowhere in Utah - Vernal, for example - walk into a ward meeting, and likely find people who have lived in and speak the language of dozens of foreign countries thanks to mission experience and are generally better educated than most rural populations. Not to say Utah is without its rednecks - it has its fair share - but you're painting the population with an awfully broad brush.
Utah has a lot of political problems. A lot of this has to do with the fact that there is little competition in Utah - the Democrats have situated themselves too far to the left to be seriously considered by many Utahns, and the simple fact is that a lot of Republican incumbents in office now needed to be ousted long, long ago. Similar patterns can be seen in other areas with little competition - Ted Stevens of Alaska would be a classic example. In cases like this, where little competition exists, you get bad laws from time to time, and more often than you would see otherwise.
I'd recommend giving Utah another chance. Move to an urban area for a few months and you'll see something different. I'm not going to lie - it's different than the rest of the U.S. But as a southerner, I felt different about the northeast as well during trips there.
Re:As a Mormon from Florida living in Utah... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm glad you posted that link, because I was googling for a Missionary position and you just wouldn't believe the type of stuff that started popping up on my screen.
(I enabled WEP on my wifi and now it's much better... )
For the children you say, SCO? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Wow, that's seriously messed up. It sounds like they just abuse the kids until they stop resisting authority figures? I hate to think what sort of an adult such a kid could grow up to be.
Also, only 20% of kids "graduate" the program? That doesn't sound like success to me.
Japanese lesson of the day... (Score:2)
"Ano Yarro"...
When did the SCO chairman go into politics? (Score:2)
Just one reason more that this company should finally be shut down. It breeds lunatics.
Light is out of control! (Score:5, Funny)
Studies show that most porn enjoyed by children is primarily through their eyes. Clearly, light is out of control. There ought to be a law.
WTF? (Score:3, Interesting)
Quite right too (Score:3, Interesting)
We also know that once a person is perverted, it is practically impossible for that person to adjust to normal attitudes in regard to sex.
(Free clue before you mod me troll: I'm referring to things which have been said in anti-porn propaganda).
we have an Internet out of control (Score:4, Insightful)
Man.. that is scary. The Internet was never under control. It kinda used to be the point of it really. I remember in the early 90s when I tried to explain to my dad that nobody 'owned' the internet, that there was no-one dictating what you could or couldn't do on it, it was just a bunch of computers connected to each other, and yours was one of those, so what you did on the net was just business between you and whoever you were sending packets to/from.
I remember him doing a 'meh' kind of face and saying something along the lines of "Yeah, sounds, nice. We'll see how long it takes to have some business value, then you can kiss all that freedom goodbye, and say hello to the new 'owners'".
It's kind of sad, really.
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"Most popular" with whom?
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He's also popular with Utahrds who keep voting him back into the Senate.
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No, they go to Starbucks to GET porn. Well, handjobs. Whatever. Huh, "I like money". Yeah.
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I have another reason to believe kids are not going to Starbucks for free WiFi. Starbucks doesn't have free wireless. The service is provided by T-Mobile. I used to think Starbucks had free WiFi and went to one on my travels to use it. It was at Starbucks I learned the truth. While at Starbucks, I found an open WiFi network and used it instead. (not for porn)
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But it's the dog being involved that worries me.