FC: Politech quotes of the week from members of Congress

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Thu Jun 12 2003 - 20:48:31 PDT

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    http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1015475.html
    
    Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said enacting (an anti-gambling) law was 
    necessary to protect America's children. "These sites specifically target 
    preteen-age children. They're becoming addicted to it, and they turn to 
    crime...If dogs, cats, rabbits, any animal--if they protect their youth, at 
    least we can rise to that level and protect the youth of our country."
    
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    http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1015475.html
    
    Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, chairman of the Financial Services committee, 
    said restricting offshore gambling was necessary to thwart al-Qaida and 
    other terrorist cells. "Internet gambling services (are) a haven for money 
    launderers," Oxley said during the floor debate. "Offshore Internet 
    gambling sites can be a haven for terrorists to launder money."
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    http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1015948.html
    
    Subcommittee Chairman Gordon Smith, R-Ore., suggested that "grossly 
    pornographic" files on P2P networks are a "deceptive trade practice which 
    seems to be under the FTC's jurisdiction." Under the Federal Trade 
    Commission Act, the agency has power to punish "unfair or deceptive acts or 
    practices in or affecting commerce."
    
    Smith asked the FTC what actions it was taking to protect "young people 
    from what is clearly deception when it comes under the heading Harry Potter 
    and is clearly pornography."
    
    FTC Chairman Tim Muris, who testified along with three other commissioners, 
    replied by saying his staff's research shows that P2P pornography is 
    typically labeled correctly. "We find that in many cases, unfortunately, 
    they're quite explicit about what they're leading you to and are not 
    deceptive," Muris said.
    
    Smith also raised privacy concerns, warning that anyone installing P2P 
    software could leak sensitive files. "In tapping into these things, they 
    expose their own private materials--health information--into the public 
    domain," Smith said.
    
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    http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1015469.html
    
    (Rep. Lamar) Smith called for greater disciplinary action against 
    peer-to-peer pirates at universities, saying that research showed 16 
    percent of the files available on Kazaa are located at schools and 
    universities. "It's unlikely that this amount of file-sharing activity is 
    in furtherance of class assignments," Smith said
    
    
    
    
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