CI French finds porn in 133 newsgroups

[lutz@as-node.jena.thur.de (Lutz Donnerhacke)]

Holt jemand mal die Liste?


If anyone wants an alphabetically sorted copy of the French hit list showing
some double and some treble entries and/or a copy of Mr French's letter to
Internet Providers threatening  "do this or else"  please tell me and I'll
post a copy in the follow-ups newsgroups.

========= begin quote ==============================

From:	Network News 28 August 1996,  page 3

		British Police list 133 obscene news groups

Scotland Yard officials have published a list of 133 new (repeat new) groups
which they say breach the Obscene Publications Act.

Many of the sites feature pornographic images of children .................

Scotland Yard compiled the list by going through the news groups concerned
and listing anything that contravenes the Obscene Publications Act.

"We're not saying that this is a definitive list," said Chief Inspector
Stephen French, of the Metropolitan Police clubs and vice unit.
"We're just saying that at the time we checked these news groups, they ALL
had material that is illegal under the Obscene Publications Act."

"We are concerned about news groups that contained pornographic images of
children" said French.  He denied that the list targeted the gay community.

"We're not using this list to bash the gay community over the head" said
French.  "We are adamant that ALL of the news groups concerned had material
that was not only illegal, but would be distasteful to any reasonable human
being".

===================== end quote ============================

Personally I believe Mr French, himself, has never looked in ALL those 133
newsgroups.   Perhaps a junior minister in the Home Office passed the
original list to Scotland Yard immediately following a Pre Election meeting
at Tory Central Office.

The strange thing about Mr French's child porn concerns is that his unit is
NOT responsible for tacking child porn.  That is the duty of the
Metropolitan Police's Paedophile Unit located at a separate address and the
members of that unit have contrasting ideas to Mr French about Usenet
censorship.

============== another quote =============

From:	Computing 22 August 1996, page 4

CI French said  "The Obscene Publications Act is about publishing for gain
and we could prosecute them (the ISPs)".

==================== end quote =================
Big Ears.