Sen. Biden wants to monitor all P2P files for illegal activity

[Hugabear]

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9920665-7.html

<snip>
A prominent Senate Democrat on Wednesday said federal and local police should use custom software to monitor peer-to-peer networks for illegal activity, and he wants to spend $1 billion in tax dollars to help make that happen.

At an afternoon Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing about child exploitation on the Internet, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) said he was under the impression it's "pretty easy to pick out the person engaged in either transmitting or downloading violent scenes of rape, molestation" simply by looking at file names. He urged use of those techniques by investigators to help nab the most egregious offenders.
<snip>

I don't support monitoring of phone calls and emails in the name of "terrorism", and I can't say that I really support this either. Seems a bit overreaching and invasive, giving too much power to the feds to monitor what people send back & forth to each other.

[Clovis Sangrail]

1. another politician with no fucking clue what they're talking about /nt

[Romulox]

2. They can search your urine and hair for pot. Why shouldn't they be able to search your computer?

If you aren't guilty, you have little to fear! :sarcasm:

[Kelvin Mace]

3. Hey joe?

Bit me you fucking corporate tool!

Shouldn't you be helping credit card companies torture widows and orphans?

[Smith_3]

4. Pretty useless, once the filesharers get the hang of the anonymous progs.

Such as AntsP2P, GnuNet, Stealthnet, MUTE and countless others. Scanning those networks is a complete waste of time and money, because no person can ever be associated with a single transfer.

I don't want my taxmoney going into such a futile effort.

[rsmith6621]

5. So I Guess This is a NO NOD....

........for a VP nomination?????

[lonestarnot]

6. WTF

Unbelievable!

[mainegreen]

7. The only way to defeat P2P is to turn off the internet. n/t

[Hugabear]

10. Dear god, don't give them any ideas!

n/t

[B3Nut]

8. Hey Joe: File names don't mean squat

That's the easiest thing to spoof. You could create a porn photo and name it support_the_troops_ribbon_for_suvs.jpg and it would go unnoticed.

This is why I say again: politicians need to leave tech alone. They don't know a thing about that with which they're messing. Only IT professionals should be allowed to create tech policy.

[sammythecat]

13. That's right. If he did any research at all

he got zero good advice on this stupid proposal. It's stunningly naive.

[Johonny]

9. Just what I need

a federal agent blocking my tubes.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. "The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. "

H.L. Mencken

[frylock]

12. so he's in bed with the credit card corps and the riaa/mpaa?

eat it, joe.

[Fleshdancer]

14. this is so sad, it's almost funny

Dear Joe,

If you don't understand how P2P works, then it's best not to discuss ideas on how to monitor the files. People will laugh at you.
If you want to spend one billion dollars on building custom software for something, I recommend talking to a few IT professionals first. Perhaps www.IASAhome.org can help you find someone to talk to? Food for thought.

Best Regards,
Gloria

[Indenturedebtor]

15. FAIL

What a terrible and facist idea.

Senator Biden please grab a chair and silence yourself. Go back to working on the Iraq war, you know what you're talking about on that. This issue... not so much. You've had your series of tubes moment.