A pair of Republican legislators have introduced legislation that would require ISPs to retain user data for two years as a means of helping law enforcement fight child porn; is this latest effort narrow enough to finally pass?law enforcement "has adequate authority now to require providers to preserve the records it needs." Though many ISPs discard user records after a few months, they must keep data if they're informed by police that a particular user is under investigation. And of course, if data is retained for all users, rather than only those who've already caught the eye of the kiddie porn cops, it may prove useful for purposes utterly unrelated to porn prosecutions—identifying purported copyright infringers springs readily to mind.
In addition to the data retention requirement, the bill increases penalties for those found guilty of trafficking in child porn—up to a maximum of life in prison—and allocates $30 million to fund the FBI's "Innocent Images" initiative.. More at; http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/new-bill-would-force-isps-to-retain-user-data-for-2-years.ars
In addition to the data retention requirement, the bill increases penalties for those found guilty of trafficking in child porn—up to a maximum of life in prison—and allocates $30 million to fund the FBI's "Innocent Images" initiative.. More at; http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/new-bill-would-force-isps-to-retain-user-data-for-2-years.ars