Reply #27: Setting aside the legal and moral implications for a moment ... [View All]

[Akoto]

How would they even accomplish it? Similar technical details were discussed here on DU not long ago, with the law proposed by Adam Walsh/McCain (I think) to police the internet for illegal images. The law would have also required wireless router owners to report illegal image transmission across their networks, on pain of heavy fines. You can imagine how cafe owners, who generally have no knowledge of things like data transmission, feel about that one.

The problem lies in that so much data is transmitted every single day. Billions of messages and files going back and forth. Another problem is that the data is disassembled and sent in 'packets.' It's only really intact at two points: the originating computer, and the receiving one. Even if you caught it mid-stream, it'd have to be reassembled.

Assuming they had no trouble reassembling every packet of data sent across the internet, they'd then have to examine everything they found. You'd be hard pressed to develop a program capable of assessing legality with 100% accuracy. So, you'd need people. Lots and lots of people doing nothing but examining random files 24/7. Even then, the work would pile up much faster than it gets cleared out.