Law and Policy

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17 November 2006, The federal Ninth Circuit Court vacated the sentence of convicted child pornographer John Kuchinski when it found that his 70-month sentence was based on the number of images found on his computer, including more than 10,000 images found in his temporary Internet files and deleted Internet files. Judge Fernandez explains, to hold otherwise "turns abysmal ignorance into knowledge and a less than valetudinarian [sic, nerdy] grasp into dominion and control."

13 October 2006, President signs H.R. 4954: Security and Accountability For Every Port Act ("SAFE Port Act"), which SAFE Port Act incorporated Title VIII--Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 ("UIGEA"). Title VIII added in conference committee. Earlier, the House passed the SAFE Port Act: ayes-421, nays-2 and not voting-9 and the Senate passed the SAFE Port Act: ayes-98, nays-0 and not voting-2.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) The Senator has been one of leading architects of banning Internet poker. After nine unsuccessful attempts with his "Unlawful Internet Gambling Act" he finally got his bill incorporated in the 2006 Act.

Rep Diana DeGette (D-Colorado) This foe of Internet rights plans on introducing a bill calling for the mandatory data retention of Internet activity in the 110th Congress. In the 109th she voted in favor of H.R. 4411, the early House version of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. She intends to introduce legislation in the 110th Congress mandating Internet service providers keep records of their users activities for a period of up to two years. DeGette has succeeded ex-Rep Leach as the number one enemy of Internet rights in the House.

Pre-election fall 2006, the Mark Foley "House Page Scandal" adds saliva to the legislative palate for passage of a comprehensive Internet data retention act in the 110th Congress.

27 June 2006, five major online companies announced joint initiative with National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to launch an aggressive new campaign against child exploitation on the Internet.

“Assembling the tiles of recent government initiatives limiting net rights, privacy and content forms a disturbing mosaic of authoritarianism.”

“The instruments of torture for the modern Inquisitors are extended caches of Internet history, logs on senders and receivers of email, databases on IM and chat room participation, geolocation cell phone chips and IP address software, codification of all financial transactions, detailed phone records, eavesdropping on international emails and access to all international financial transactions.” (overview on recent initiatives)

“Caching 120 billion unique page views for a two-year period for 207 million Americans to provide possible prosecutorial evidence on a thousand perverts is misguided and dangerous.” (reference to proposed child pornography legislation) all quotes NetRightsAdvocates

The Advocates seek to preserve the adult Americans' right to access all Internet content, with the sole exception of child pornography. The Advocates seek to prevent government mandated privacy-invasive data preservation legislation.

In recent years various states and the federal government have passed legislation to restrict American's access to Internet gambling, while allowing, fostering, encouraging or owning (in the case of state lotteries) other forms of brick and mortar gambling and several forms of Internet gambling.

According to a Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research public opinion of adults: 52% played state lotteries; 35% visited a casino, 18% played poker (either at a card club or socially); 10% wagered on a race (horse, dog or whatever) and 4% engaged in Internet gambling. According to this study, 25% of the US population over 21 visited casinos in 2005, averaging 6.1 trips per gambler---52.8 million casino visitations. "Overall acceptability of casino gambling remained high in 2005, according to Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research with nearly 80% of Americans indicating it is acceptable for themselves or others. This figure tracks acceptability levels over the last six years." A spring 2006 survey by the International Research Center found that 75% of Americans would oppose a congressional ban on Internet poker. Nevertheless, Congress passed a ban.

Some form of gambling is sanctioned in over 80% of the states and at the federal level, 80% of Americans condoning gambling either by themselves or others and 75% of Americans oppose federal bans on Internet poker.