House of Reps Votes for Broad Wi-Fi Restrictions in the Name of Porn

It's hard to fathom how severe the fallout of the SAFE Act could end up being, but if the House of Representives has its way, SAFE could be on the fast track to becoming the law of the land. In a vote of 409 to 2, the House overwhelmingly voted for the legislation, sending it now to the Senate.

What's SAFE? It stands for the Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act, and its reach could be unprecedented. Namely, it holds that anyone offering any public electronic communications service (including an open Wi-Fi connection or internet kiosk) must create a sort of dossier on anyone they suspect might be viewing child pornography over their network and submit it to the government. (Presumably the culprit would have to be caught in the act; the bill doesn't really say.) The service provider will also have to maintain an archive of all the suspect's files for use as evidence.

It sounds bad at first, but the definition of child pornography in this case is especially surprising. Per Cnet's Declan McCullagh, the definition of such images include those featuring fully clothed children in "lascivious" poses and even drawings of such obscenity. (That would include the popular form of hentai anime.)

Failure to comply could result in a first-offense fine of $150,000 and $300,000 after that. That means every library, coffee shop, and even private homes that offer open wireless access could face crushing penalties if they don't eavesdrop on their clientele. In other words: The government wants you to do its dirty work and play Big Brother on its behalf. Creepy.

Additionally scary: This legislation never received a committee vote or public hearing and was never made available for public review. Way to sneak one past the goalie, Congress!

UPDATE: Ars Technica writes that the bill may not be intended to have such broad consequences as discussed in the Cnet story... but even the bill's introducer isn't entirely sure. 

LINK: House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites