After Finding No Joy Elsewhere, SCO Chairman Takes Anti-Porn Fight To ICANN

from the silent-majority dept

A few years ago, Ralph Yarro, the chairman of everybody’s favorite tech company, SCO, put forward a plan to ban all internet porn from port 80, the port used by HTTP traffic. He later added that open WiFi should be banned as a means to stop porn. Not surprisingly, his ideas failed to find traction (except with the governor of his home state, Utah) but Yarro and his anti-porn group are pressing on, and are now asking ICANN to set up a “Cybersafety Constituency” to create binding rules on how to deal with net porn. How’s this for a binding rule: don’t access porn sites, and you won’t be bothered with it? The idea that anybody — let alone ICANN — should be able to play the role of global web censor is scary, and opens the door to restrictions on all sorts of objectionable, but not illegal, content. As The Register notes, Yarro called for supporters to make comments on the proposal at ICANN’s site, and plenty of people from Utah obliged. Wonder what all the people in the state who love net porn think of the proposal…

Filed Under: , , , ,
Companies: sco

Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “After Finding No Joy Elsewhere, SCO Chairman Takes Anti-Porn Fight To ICANN”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
12 Comments
RD says:

uh...

Tell me again HOW its possible to ban JUST porn from everything? Sorry, but FAIL yet again by people who have ZERO CLUE how the internet works. This isnt even possible on a practical level. Even filtering wouldnt catch all of it and the providers of online porn would just find ways around it anyway. Stupid people that exist on this planet, I tell you…

Anonymous Coward says:

Option 1: Encourage parents to take time and talk to their children about sex, porn, etc. and explain things to them like an actual parent should instead of relying on society to raise the children they wanted to have

Option 2: Try to violate the fist amendment by right to freedom of expression/speech, try to outright ban just a certain portion of the internet because a small group of people don’t like it and instead of being good parents have to propose ludicrous legislation to “protect” the children.

Guess which option they choose…

Antony Van Couvering (user link) says:

Yes and they're not the only ones

Thanks for this sane notice. I found out about this a few days ago (March 12) when I was reading their petition and wondering what they hell they were all about. Then I saw the “support” comments and realized from their Stepford quality that I had entered a drone storm, so I wrote a story about it.

Now the same kind of group-think is threatening ICANN from a different direction: the same indefatigable crowd that wants to stop all progress in order to assuage the fears of certain trademark holders. I wrote another article about that.

Things are happening over at ICANN. It’s a space to watch.

stevie says:

i agree

let of tell you something i fully agree with you the people who expose there selfs on the internet have no self respect and are trash . I was checking out chat rooms today and i found one with a fourteen year old exposing her self and much more other younger girls with nude pics that site was called aim chat i think this chat service should been takin off the internet

stevie says:

i agree

let of tell you something i fully agree with you the people who expose there selfs on the internet have no self respect and are trash . I was checking out chat rooms today and i found one with a fourteen year old exposing her self and much more other younger girls with nude pics that site was called aim chat i think this chat service should been takin off the internet

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

A weekly news podcast from
Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

Subscribe now to Ctrl-Alt-Speech »
Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...