More than a decade ago, John Gilmore, one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, coined the phrase "the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission declined to wade into this issue in a case that placed the spotlight on how Canada's Internet service providers treat illegal content that originates outside the country.
The person behind the case was Richard Warman, an Ottawa lawyer who is one of Canada's leading activists against Internet-based hate. Warman has filed numerous complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against Canadian-based hate sites, arguing that those sites violate the law.Ê The Commission has sided with Warman on several occasions, most recently in a case against a London, Ontario man who was sentenced by a federal court judge to nine months in prison.
Reacting to the jail sentence, several U.S.-based sites directly targeted Warman, mounting death threats against him.Ê Warman asked U.S. law enforcement authorities to take action against the sites, but when they failed to do so (those cases are under investigation), he filed his groundbreaking application with the CRTC.
Read the Full Story on michaelgeist.ca.
Labels: In the News
Wrong question. The question should be whether the responsibility rests with every respectable member of society to report child porn if they see it and the answer to that question is a resounding yes.
Child pornography is an insidious and ever-growing crime. It is hard to police, but it's not hard to find.
The answer to stopping the exploitation of children online and the scourge of child pornography is a diligence by every member of society - parents, kids, businesses, educators, law enforcement - we all have a responsibility.
As one young victim I had a hand in rescuing from horrible abuse said to me years later: "Just tell someone."
A little sunshine in these dark corners of the Internet world would be a great disinfectant.
Paul Gillespie,Retired officer in charge of Toronto Police Child Exploitation SectionFounder of KINSA, Toronto