Shutting Down the Bad Guys on the 'Net

Telecom consultant Mark Goldberg has got himself involved in the middle of a disturbing situation involving some alleged white supremacists who – via Web sites in Canada and the U.S. - are apparently calling for the murder of a human rights lawyer in Ottawa who put Tomasz Winnicki in jail for ignoring a court order to stop posting hate on the Internet. Goldberg has teamed up with lawyers from Papazian Heisey Myers and Bernie Farber, CEO of Canadian Jewish Congress, to file an application with the CRTC under section 36 of the Telecom Act to ask the regulator to order ISPs to block access to these Web sites. You can read Mark's post here. While I'm not sure I agree with Jon Arnold's view this is the dark side of Net Neutrality, I agree with Jon that ISPs (carriers, cablecos and re-sellers) and governments have a responsibility to block content that is clearly illegal. How they proceed should follow the legal process and respect freedom of speech but the Internet is not a free for all or the wild west. Here's a Canadian Press story.

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Rob Hyndman

I think Michael Geist has this one nailed.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1381/125/
Anonymous

These are not bad guys, these are just obnoxious idiots.
Spam bot runners and rooters are bad guys.
I think we decided in our culture long ago to let political speech be heard.
This is a test of free speech and tolerance. Let's not fail it.
Anonymous

I hate to smack Jews with reality, but I never actually told anyone to kill Richard Warman (well, at least via the internet). ;-D
I posted his address. I then was asked, on the radio, “What if someone kills him” and said “I hope they do. He deserves to be killed.”
And I stand by that. They should line you guys up and shoot you right next to each other.
But, there is no website calling for the death of Richard Warman.
That said, I thank you for driving 76,000 Canadians to my website, Overthrow.com, which has not been taken off the internet.
You have made this big enough that we may actually get some revolution out of it.
LOL
Rob Hyndman

Mark,
“I agree with Jon that ISPs (carriers, cablecos and re-sellers) and governments have a responsibility to block content that is clearly illegal”.
If they have a responsibility to block, do they have a responsibility to look at content to see whether it is illegal? Who decides?
Should ISP's packet-sniff for uploading of mp3's or video files? What about defamatory content? And blocking access to US sites that discuss election results before voting closes?
And if ISP's can block, do they have an obligation to? And liability if they fail to?
Not sure, but in 99% of cases, I think it's not so clear. And I'm pretty sure I don't want ISP's involved in law enforcement.