Technologies

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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.

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.

The Advocates believe that the Internet has, is and will continue to be the key democratizing tool for the world's oppressed in the 21st century.

Americans must challenge politically and technologically all government-directed Internet filtering and surveillance practices.

Unfortunately, democratic governments fear the Internet as much as autocracies. The Internet is casting aside less efficient business models and changing the nature of competition in many key industries. Traditional news sources and publications are seeing dwindling subscriber bases as freelance webloggers, YouTubers and specialized news web-sites transform the landscape of the Fourth Estate. Governments traditional influential relationship with the press and power over licensed radio and television broadcasters has been compromised by freelance, democratic Internet news sources. State governments watch angry and frustrated as potential sales tax revenues evaporate on web-purchases. The federal, state and tribal governments fume as potential "tax" revenues from American gamblers are diverted to foreign gambling websites and away from sanctioned gaming venues.

Legitimately, however, governments strive to curtail child pornography and the theft of copyrighted and patented works.

As the Internet permeates more and more into American government, business and individual lives, the potential for governmental misuse grows exponentially. Government attempts to "filter" anti-social activities will severely compromise the freedoms of all Americans beyond the Web. Government legislation to capture some information on Internet usage will create systems that can be grossly misused to capture all information. The boundary between restricting and/or prosecuting rare antisocial activities (child pornography) and the harsh imposition of pervasive authoritarian filtering and privacy invasive systems will be crossed (proto-fascism).

Americans have a duty to vote out legislators who seek to restrict Americans access to Internet content or compromise American's constitutional privacy rights. Americans have a duty to frustrate, evade and/or defeat the imposition of proto-fascist Web-tyranny by using circumvention technologies.

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The Cato Institute seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace. Toward that goal, the Institute strives to achieve greater involvement of the intelligent, concerned lay public in questions of policy and the proper role of government.

The Citizens Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto "engages in research and development at the intersection of Information and Communications Technologies and Global Civic Networks."

The Pew Internet & American Life Project produces reports that explore the impact of the Internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source on the evolution of the Internet through collection of data and analysis of real-world developments as they affect the virtual world.