[JR]

the interesting part of all this is that everyone gets upset at DirectNIC. i can understand that because of the insecurity that creates and no one wants to feel they can wake up one day and find their business shut down.

BUT... there is an entirely different side to this. thats the fact that this is still an industry that doesn't comply with the law, hasn't complied with past laws and fails miserably to police itself in any way, shape or form. in fact, the general attitude is generally one of outright defiance.

Boycotting DirectNIC, while maybe justified in the eyes of most, does nothing to address the real problems... its just theater to maintain a "feel good" and false sense of security people need to feel better about themselves and to go on about their day telling themselves that everything is ok. It ignores the fact that all registrars have this power. It ignores the fact that this is a possibility with any registrar. It ignores the fact that the Federal Government has been clear that they will do everything they can to pressure this business from every possible side. No one is 2257 compliant anyway and no matter what anyone thinks about legality or "right" and "wrong" a 38 year old mother of 3 stumbling across some of these TGP's isn't going to care much about docs when they see a consistent pattern of girls looking to be much younger than 18.

Additionally, there is a real problem. People produce and distribute CP. People abuse children. The problem with the "report it to the FBI" notion is that it does little to get the site shut down and put the person in jail and send a message. The registrar is the ONLY people that have the ability to stop someone in their tracks.. whether they should or not is obviously debatable... but notifying law enforcement brings into play 10-20 law enforcement agencies and various departments of those agencies worldwide that have to work together through impossible beurocracy and slow communication to investigate. it takes months. the dirty secret of the ASACP is what it has always been... it stops nothing. just like reporting a spammer stops nothing when the business model is already built on the fact that the site will be up for 3-4 weeks before moving. meanwhile.. children are being abused in this time. sites are up.

I dont like the idea of a registrar playing judge, jury and executioner... but a sad fact of law enforcement is that the registrar is more effective in stopping a CP related site.