Internet Pornography - Out of Control

The Porn Industry is spying on you and nobody cares

The World Wide Web is turning into a major porn industry and it sickens me. Pornography has taking control it can be found everywhere. There was a time porn sites were a closely guarded secret. People would have to know someone who had information on where the sites were, subscribe to an x-rated news group, or search for hours trying to find the “Debbie does everyone but you” sites. Back then finding a porn site was harder then finding both socks after getting them out of the dryer. No longer.

I am an adult male, over 21, healthy sexual appetite. Perhaps I’m one of a kind, or the last of a dying breed, because I don’t bother with pornography; could care less. Of course I find it sexually stimulating. My mate always said to turn me on, all she had to do was show up naked. See, typical male. The wind blows, I’m ready! I just don’t care about porn. I like the look and feel of the real thing. I also find it a lot more satisfying than a photo staring back at me. That’s just me though. Here is the kicker. I support the right of any adult female or male to view whatever they wish as long as it’s legal. As long as the Supreme Court says adults can look at staged love lunches on the web, then I support it. I told you I am the last of a dying breed.

It has been demonstrated through the courts that the display of pornography on the Internet are protected constitutional rights as governed under the First Amendment of the Constitution. This very fact went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Basically they have stated that under the First Amendment the Internet can display pornography and as Americans we can look at all we want. As the comic, Yakov Smirnoff used to say, “What a country!”

The same industry that is successfully defending itself from being governed through the defense that their constitutional rights are being violated, are continuously and indiscriminately violating our constitutional rights and federal laws. Their practice of spying on our personal lives through electronic means violates our right to privacy, as protected by the First and Fourth Amendments and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 2000. Their spamming techniques are a direct violation of the new Can-Spam Act of 2003, which contains a provision for protection against spam containing unmarked sexually oriented or pornographic material. They also violate many federal, state, city and local obscenities laws.

The porn industries invasive use of spyware tactics also violates various laws under the Federal Trade Commission, and the pending Spy Act, which will grant the Federal Trade Commission broad new powers enabling them to police America's software industry. If someone really wanted to push the envelope they could charge violations under the USA Patriot Act. After all, spying into ones computer through electronic means could be construed an act of spying.

They will try any tactic, install any software, and send any e-mail with the ultimate goal of bringing you to their site. The majority of it is unsolicited and unwanted. Some Porn sites will hijack your home page, changing it to their location. They will change your default search engine to theirs. There is the ever popular installing an additional toolbar on your browser, which of course is a porn toolbar. This is such a favorite tactic that you can google porn toolbar and find instructional pages as well as pre-designed porn toolbars to purchase for your company.

They inundate us with adware, pop ups, spyware, anything they can think of to get you to view their sites. Recently a friend of mine was on a commercial porn site, clicked on a link and over forty new windows loaded in his browser. He said, “I really don’t know how many new windows the site loaded, because the system crashed at forty.” “It was so bad I had to reinstall the entire operating system.”

Remember, Spyware is a parasite, which lives in your computer, feeding off you.

Spyware changes system settings, installs other software, monitors where and what you surf. It creates data files on your hard drive of your surfing habits and intermittently sends this data to their servers; that is the nicer versions of spyware. It can be used to assist in identity theft, tracking your personal data, capturing your keystrokes, invading your privacy, searching your computer for credit card data and social security numbers, all with the intended goal of stealing your identity.

Pornographic spam, unsolicited e-mail surreptitiously sent by the porn industry with no-choice-but-to-view inline photos openly displaying nude couples having sex, afternoon delights, love lunches, photos of women’s legs spread wide enough for three Gynecologists to work side by side while a professional team of cinematographers capture video footage, photos of Bambi, Thumper and the entire college football team having sex on a tennis court while the freshman class keeps time with the nude cheerleaders and dancing security staff.

There is a distinct possibility a child could unknowingly be standing next to someone while they are checking their e-mail. “Spam central” as some call it. We often sit at home or in a coffee shop, laptop online, surfing away. A child could be behind you, off to your side and you are not aware of it. You open your e-mail and an unsolicited porn photo opens in the middle of the document. That scenario is not the users fault; they had no idea it contained porn. Why? Because it had a false, contrived from field and the subject had nothing to do with the photo; simply words or a phrase to make the user open the message. We have all received them, we know.

These are in direct violation of the new Can-Spam Act of 2003. Under this act, if the e-mail contains porn, the term “sexually explicit” has to go in the subject line. The porn industry will simply conduct business as usual with their spamming, attempting to throw off the enforcement by engaging in deception, through bouncing emails off proxy servers, or lying in the subject line, or a new concept, spoofing, where the from line is forged to give the impression it is from a friend.

One would assume the government, ever vigilant, would want to protect our children from pornography. Let’s be honest, we are not speaking about an adult wanting to look at porn. We are talking about a child and the possibility they could be subjected to this. The Supreme Court blocked enforcement of a law intended to protect children from pornography on the Internet, They said the law probably violates free-speech guarantees, and by a 5-4 vote, the high court said it "likely violates the First Amendment."

Perhaps the outcome would have been different had the porn industry been brought before the courts on the invasion of privacy issue, first and fourth amendment violations through indiscriminate spyware and spamming. This issue should be seriously considered it might hold the key to achieve the same desired effects. Not to shut them down, I don’t support that in any way. I support holding them accountable for their actions through implementation of a form of protection for those too young to protect themselves.

We can all do something about this. Research it on the net; find out whom to turn to. The new Can-Spam act is enforced by The Department of Justice. If you want to tell someone you are receiving porn e-mail and want something done about it, notify your local Internet Service Provider, they will point you in the right direction.