Wednesday, Aug 6, 2008    Text size: 

The announcement mean Cablevision will join the ranks of such companies as Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, AOL, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable in acceding to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's demands to eradicate access to the illegal contraband.

Cuomo continues to coerce ISPs around the country to join in the effort, and only yesterday sent a letter to Covad Broadband Service, another Long Island-based ISP, threatening legal action if it does not sign an agreement with his office similar to ones signed by the other companies.

As part of the agreement, companies agree to block all child porn newsgroups and eliminate from its servers child pornography websites that are identified by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Cuomo's initiative has sparked censorship fears among some civil libertarians, who argue that legitimate discussions may be unjustly disabled in the zeal to disable access to usenet newsgroups that actually do engage in the sharing of illegal content.