Protect children? Save money!
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 5:35 am
With the appearance of the "black list" of sites in Russia, a new stage in the fight of copyright holders against pirated Internet resources may begin. A proven strategy that has already proven its effectiveness in Denmark or the USA may also bear fruit in Russia. Or may not? Let's try to figure it out.
A word is not a sparrow
Western media still quote with indignation the statement made by the head of the Danish Anti-Piracy Group, Johan Schlüter, back in 2007: “Child pornography is great. Politicians do not understand why free file sharing on the Internet is bad. But they are ready to filter the Internet to clean it of child pornography; this will allow them to gain public approval and score points in the political race.” Of course, these words, spoken at a meeting of copyright holders, were not intended for the ears of journalists. But words are not sparrows: the copyright holders, represented by Johan Schlüter, were immediately accused of blatant cynicism.
However, Johan Schlüter knew what he was talking about. By that time, Denmark had already had an Internet filtering system in place for two years, designed to combat the spread of child pornography. It was launched back in October 2005 by the country's largest Internet provider, TDC A/S, in cooperation with the country's police and the charity Save the Children. By May 2006, all major providers had joined the fight against child pornography, and the system covered 98% of Danish users. By the time Johan Schlüter spoke in 2007, Denmark had already shut down more than one pirate resource, including AllOfMP3.com and The Pirate Bay.
Another example comes from the United States. Last summer, US Internet providers (AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner Cable) began cooperating with the Recording network marketing contact database Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). At the request of copyright holders, Internet providers issue warnings to users suspected of copyright infringement. The types of warnings range from a simple email to slowing down the Internet or blocking access.
As we can see, even the strictest measures aimed at combating the spread of child pornography invariably find support at the highest level. Of course, most of those who advocate filtering the Internet to combat child pornography have good intentions. However, deleting such content from the Internet is unlikely to help solve the problem. First of all, it is necessary to find and punish the creators and distributors of child pornography. Filtering the Internet can hardly contribute to this. (There is an opinion that it can also hinder: in essence, this is concealing evidence of committed criminal offenses). But the fight against child pornography can become a convenient pretext for copyright holders in the fight against pirated resources.
This agreement was the result of the fight against child pornography, which was led by the Attorney General of the State of New York Andrew M. Cuomo. Back in 2008, with the participation of Andrew M. Cuomo, an agreement was reached with several major Internet service providers, which agreed to block access to Internet resources containing child pornography. After that, Andrew M. Cuomo was approached by representatives of the RIAA. “We brought to his attention that there is a direct connection between the distribution of child pornography and Internet piracy, since all types of files, legal and illegal, are transmitted through peer-to-peer (peer-to-peer) networks,” explained RIAA President Keri Sherman.
A word is not a sparrow
Western media still quote with indignation the statement made by the head of the Danish Anti-Piracy Group, Johan Schlüter, back in 2007: “Child pornography is great. Politicians do not understand why free file sharing on the Internet is bad. But they are ready to filter the Internet to clean it of child pornography; this will allow them to gain public approval and score points in the political race.” Of course, these words, spoken at a meeting of copyright holders, were not intended for the ears of journalists. But words are not sparrows: the copyright holders, represented by Johan Schlüter, were immediately accused of blatant cynicism.
However, Johan Schlüter knew what he was talking about. By that time, Denmark had already had an Internet filtering system in place for two years, designed to combat the spread of child pornography. It was launched back in October 2005 by the country's largest Internet provider, TDC A/S, in cooperation with the country's police and the charity Save the Children. By May 2006, all major providers had joined the fight against child pornography, and the system covered 98% of Danish users. By the time Johan Schlüter spoke in 2007, Denmark had already shut down more than one pirate resource, including AllOfMP3.com and The Pirate Bay.
Another example comes from the United States. Last summer, US Internet providers (AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner Cable) began cooperating with the Recording network marketing contact database Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). At the request of copyright holders, Internet providers issue warnings to users suspected of copyright infringement. The types of warnings range from a simple email to slowing down the Internet or blocking access.
As we can see, even the strictest measures aimed at combating the spread of child pornography invariably find support at the highest level. Of course, most of those who advocate filtering the Internet to combat child pornography have good intentions. However, deleting such content from the Internet is unlikely to help solve the problem. First of all, it is necessary to find and punish the creators and distributors of child pornography. Filtering the Internet can hardly contribute to this. (There is an opinion that it can also hinder: in essence, this is concealing evidence of committed criminal offenses). But the fight against child pornography can become a convenient pretext for copyright holders in the fight against pirated resources.
This agreement was the result of the fight against child pornography, which was led by the Attorney General of the State of New York Andrew M. Cuomo. Back in 2008, with the participation of Andrew M. Cuomo, an agreement was reached with several major Internet service providers, which agreed to block access to Internet resources containing child pornography. After that, Andrew M. Cuomo was approached by representatives of the RIAA. “We brought to his attention that there is a direct connection between the distribution of child pornography and Internet piracy, since all types of files, legal and illegal, are transmitted through peer-to-peer (peer-to-peer) networks,” explained RIAA President Keri Sherman.