Legislation and its effects in our world

Wed Feb 25 15:06:05 UTC 2009

After having a brief conversation with a friend of mine over the weekend
about this new proposed legislation I was horrified to find that I could not
dig anything up on it in NANOG. Surely this sort of short minded legislation
should have been a bit more thought through in its effects on those that
would have to implement these changes. My major concern is not just for
myself but for a much broader picture.

"Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law
that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi
access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep
records about users for two years to aid police investigations."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/20/internet.records.bill/index.html

I understand and agree that minors should be protected and I think child
pornography is awful, however I think how the government is going about
catching these criminals with this new legislation will not really be any
more efficient than there current methods. Having a log of all IP's that
come across my or anyone in America's "home" Wi-Fi for two years is not
going to help "police investigations" but will cause me to have to go buy a
more expensive router.

So I'm just wondering, how would this legislation effect some of you on the
NANOG list?

-Jim