i read your mail today, oh boy...

be afraid, be very afraid.

i'm not a lawyer. i've had the blood tests, i can prove it. crooks & liars points at this piece of legislation headed for the floors of congress:

"Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act (SAFETY) of 2007 (Introduced in House) HR 837 IH"

the sexual exploitation of children can be summed up in three words: deeply evil madness. something is very wrong with people who are sexually attracted to children. children are the sacred people. we, individually and as communities, are duty and honour bound to protect children from harm and exploitation.

and while i don't argue the stated ends, i certainly question the proposed means. the bill is entitled:

"H. R. 837
To amend title 18, United States Code, to protect youth from exploitation by adults using the Internet, and for other purposes."

these are the folks introducing the bill:

"Mr. SMITH of Texas (for himself, Mr. FORBES, Mr. GALLEGLY, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. FEENEY, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, and Mr. PENCE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary"

the upshot, via the the agonist, is that the law, "...would require ISPs to record all users' surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely." well isn't that swell. seems to me that this is a shell game. the nsa has been hampered in recording the private communications of the nation. this is the elegant solution, hide an invasive, blanket surveillance act (and the death of privacy rights) in legislation on an emotionally powerful issue.

i'm going to hope that the better instincts of the authors were overcome by zeal and not by malice. yes, the prevention and prosecution of pedophiles is vital, but at what cost? the only letters i've written and snailed in the last few years, have been legal papers and business paperwork. the rest of my correspondence is online. if you're reading this, i doubt your world is shaped much different. think this doesn't affect canada? how much of our web and email traffic gets routed through american servers, nodes and portals? each transient residence in the servers is subject.

but you aren't a diddler and neither am i? nothing to worry about. right? if these rules go into effect. the queue of lawyers will wind over the horizon. what copyright holder wouldn't want unfettered access to the entirety of the web traffic of the land. every "illegal" download subject to prosecution and litigation. i imagine the legal team at universal music group are wearing lobster bibs to catch the drool. what branch of law enforcement wouldn't want to go crime-fighting in your private data? and if all of that information is being phished for one crime, why not a host of crimes?

this is over reach with staggering implications, this sort of draconian measure could stop the web in its tracks and roll digital culture back a generation.