Cracking Down on Blogs

Early in the semester, we asked the question 'What is a blog?' John McCain has a definitive answer. In a new and frightening piece of legislation a blog is defined as "any site that allows comments, authors and personal profiles." His bill proposes that blog sites be responsible for all content in their comments and user profiles. Its ostensible purpose is to curb the distribution of child pornography, but in reality its effects will be much more wide-ranging. Blogs are required to report any illegal images or videos that are posted or face stiff fines. Bloggers will have to police themselves, and since they may not know whether an image is copyrighted or "legal" some might have to shut down rather than risk paying the huge fines.

The metafilter post on the bill has lots of interesting comments discussing the bill, as bloggers worry about how it will effect their future, as well as a link to an article by the leader of the Electronic Frontier Foundation stating that it is motivated by "fear" and "political considerations" rather than fact.