Politician threatens to sue Comcast for not fighting child porn the right way

Broadband provider Comcast is pushing back against New York state attorney general Andrew Cuomo's demands to support his anti-child-porn campaign. Comcast and 16 other ISPs signed an agreement with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which maintains a blacklist of suspected illegal porn sites — but for Cuomo's office, that isn't good enough. They insist that in addition to blocking websites, Comcast must fall in line with Time Warner Cable, Verizon, Sprint, AOL and AT&T in shutting customers out of all or part of Usenet, the network of Internet-based discussion groups, and contributing funds to root out more child porn providers. It's not the most practical or even Constitutional approach, but a good move for headlines. Comcast has until Friday to respond to Cuomo's request to sign his code and kick in the cash. (Photo via Bloomberg)

Child-porn blockers' real purpose: getting politicans reelected

Joining Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint in press-releasing their concerns about child porn online, AOL and and AT&T announced today that they, too, will block their Internet service customers' access to Usenet newsgroups and websites suspected of hosting such illegal content. New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo engineered this arrangement, and California attorney general Jerry Brown and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (pictured here saving the children) are hot for a similar deal in-state. More »

Andrew Cuomo pulls the plug on Usenet over "child porn"

By law, only lawmakers are allowed to look at child porn, but that's not enough for New York State's Net-crusading attorney general, Andrew Cuomo. He's demanded that Internet service providers Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and Sprint block access to sites that "disseminate child pornography". This is to be accomplished by preventing users from visiting Usenet newsgroups and a pet list of offending sites drawn up by Cuomo's office. According to News.com, nationwide, Time Warner Cable customers may not be able to visit Usenet at all, and Verizon customers will have the alt.* newsgroups blocked. More »

Why Verizon, Sprint And Time Warner Shouldn't Block Child Porn

The New York attorney general's office ran a "sting" in which agents posed as customers and complained to the companies that they could see child porn. When the service providers ignored them, the agency threatened the companies with fraud. Now, according to the Times, the ISPs are paying over a million dollars to Andrew Cuomo's office and promising to block child porn sites as identified by the office — to all their subscribers across the U.S. As despicable and exploitative as child porn is, blocking it this way is a terrible move. More »

Andrew Cuomo subpoenas Comcast over traffic throttling

New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo has issued subpoenas to Comcast over its blocking of file sharing. For Cuomo's long arm, this case is quite a stretch: Less than 0.5 percent of its 24 million subscribers are in New York. (Photo by AP/Mike Groll)

Facebook and politicians ignore reality, endorse sexual predator bill

"Crimes committed by sexual predators against children they meet by way of the Internet occur far too often," reads the press release Facebook and a slew of New York politicians including Attorney General Andrew Cuomo put out today. "Far too often" isn't precise language, but it's likely frightening enough rhetoric to drum up votes for the Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act, announced in the release. More »

New York investigates Intel for bullying

The state of New York is launching its own investigation into Intel's anticompetitive behavior, adding to a list including the European Commission and Korea, all egged on by chipmaking rival AMD. It's only natural for New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo to want in on the action. The accusations are similar to other investigations: penalizing computer makers who purchase non-Intel chips, improperly signing exclusive contracts, and cutting off competitors' access to distribution channels. In other words, conducting business a bit too effectively for rivals' tastes. Note that IBM's main chip-assembly plant is based in New York.