On 02/18/2010 08:37 AM, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond wrote:
French lawmakers voted Tuesday to approve a draft law to filter Internet traffic...
I had lunch with a chap from CISCO France last week and we discussed this. Apparently, 1. the cost of installing the powerful equipment required to perform content filtering of all traffic is so prohibitive ... They may not mean content filtering of traffic, per se. Many people equate content filters with web filters, such as cyber patrol, net nanny, and the like. For those who don't know, these products block sites that have been determined to have certain types of content, ie. porn.
In other words, it's another law promoted by clueless non-technical "advisors"
Ah, the clueless may be ineffective in achieving their intended purpose, but along the way they are often very effective in creating collateral damage.
I testified in the Texas Senate in 2001 on the issue of internet filtering. They were pushing a bill that would require all computers sold in or from texas to include an internet filter. It would only cost a dollar to include a disk, so there would not be any harm. This bill was introduced by a senator who saw a porn popup from his aol e-mail account, while the aol child protection filter was turned on.