Isles Tech

The House of Representatives just passed on the third and final reading House Bill No. 6440, their counterpart to Senate Bill No. 2317. Together, the two bills will be consolidated to become the "Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009".

But, hey, how about Section 8?

Don't get me wrong. I don't support child pornography, and just like 99% of Filipinos, condemn it. But the problem is, with all these hullabaloo of "Yes, the Philippines finally passed an anti-child porn law", no one seems to have read the actual text of the two bills. I honestly have not read the House of Representatives version, because it's not available on their website. But I suspect Section 8 is still there.

So, what is so evil with Section 8 of SB 2317, and why is Isles Tech using some of his precious time ranting about the bill instead of catching up with the cases to read at law school? Here's the actual text of Section 8, SB 2317:

"Section 8. Responsibility of Internet Service Providers. All Internet Service Providers (ISPs) shall notify the PNP or the NBI within seven (7) days from obtaining facts and circumstances that Child Pornography is being committed using its server or facility. Nothing in this Section may be construed to require an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to engage in the monitoring of any user, subscriber or customer, or the content of any communication of any such person; provided that no Internet Service Provider (ISP) shall be held civilly liable for damages on account of any notice given in good faith in compliance with this Section.

All Internet Service Providers (ISPs) shall install available technology, program or software to ensure that access to or transmittal of Child Pornography will be blocked or filtered.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) shall promulgate within six (6) months from the effectivity of this Act the necessary implementing rules and regulations which shall include, among others, the installation of filtering software that will block access to or transmission of Child Pornography."

Here are two practical effects for you, who read blogs and access the Net almost daily:
1. Your ISP will be required to "install available technology, program or software" to make sure that "access to or transmittal of Child Pornography will be blocked or filtered" - in other words, every ISP will be required to watch what you are doing. (I'm not sure how they are going to do this, but possibly through some blacklisting scheme, just like in Germany and New Zealand.)

That's not so evil from my perspective - I've been surveillanced all my life (although I am not a subversive) and firewalls are good to force me to do more useful things anyway. And, most importantly, I'm not hiding anything :).

But this?

2. If your ISP mistakenly identifies you as a patron of child pornography, you cannot make it pay damages, since "no Internet Service Provider (ISP) shall be held civilly liable for damages on account of any notice given in good faith in compliance with this Section [8]."

Privacy advocates should find good ground against Section 8 of SB 2317, which presumably also appears in HB 6440.

Situation: One laptop is connected to the Internet via a wired connection. Both laptops have working wireless adapters.

Essentially, the steps can be divided into two separate tasks: creating an ad hoc connection, and sharing the Internet connection once the ad hoc connection is established.

Creating an Ad Hoc Connection
1. In one of the laptops, go to Start > Control Panel > Network Connections.
2. Select the correct wireless network connection and right-click then choose Properties.
3. Select the Wireless Networks tab and under Preferred networks click on Add...
4. Put a name for Network name (SSID) and uncheck the "The key is provided for me automatically" option under Wireless network key. Check "This is a computer-to-computer (ad hoc) network; wireless access points are not used." Input a five- or thirteen-character password for network key.
5. Click on OK and then the next OK.
6. Place the cursor on the wireless icon at the taskbar, right-click and choose "View Available Networks". You should see the wireless network that you've just created. Double-click on it to connect - you will be prompted for the network key you've set up earlier. Once you connect to the ad hoc network, the current laptop will send radio beacons to the other laptop and the other laptop can now detect the ad hoc network.
7. Connect to the ad hoc network from the other laptop.
8. For best results, set up static IPs. Assign one laptop with an IP of 192.168.0.1, subnet 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.0.2, and DNS 192.168.0.2, while the other will have an IP of 192.168.0.2, subnet 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.0.1, and DNS 192.168.0.1.

Sharing the Internet Connection
1. Here you have to use the laptop connected to the Internet. Go to Start > Control Panel > Network Connections.
2. Select the connection to the Internet. Click on the Advanced tab.
3. Under Internet Connection Sharing, check "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection" Uncheck the "Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection".

Try connecting to the Net now.

Finally, I got a chance to update this technology blog. Two holidays in a row for those in Cebu. :)

I've been busy with law school nowadays, but this did not stop me from planning yet another website (which I may not be able to finish anyway). This one is a collection of Philippine laws and jurisprudence, with one twist: hyperlinking among the cases, and a user feature. One can create a user account, and "watch" a case. Watching would mean that the user will be informed via email when a new case referencing the watched case is uploaded.

Expected time-frame (if I don't get tired of it :)) is by November 2009.