Brown and Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined forces to write the joint letter to the California Internet Service Provider Association, which represents about 100 ISPs. The action came in the wake of a deal made among the three ISPs and New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
"We applaud three of the largest Internet service providers — Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint — for taking steps to block access to child pornography," Brown said. "It is not enough, however, for only a few Internet service providers join the fight against online predators. Your more than 100 members can help by ridding their existing servers of child pornography and blocking access to child pornography through newsgroups."
Though cloaked in the guise of child protection, blocking Usenet discussion groups has raised the ire of civil rights advocates and tech experts because of the radically different ways that Verizon, Time Warner and Sprint have chosen to block the offending groups.
Verizon has pledged to block access to a significant portion of newsgroups, while Time Warner plans to drop access to it entirely. In both cases, regular, legal discussion groups have been shut down.
The American Civil Liberties Union has already hinted that it might try to fight the action in New York through legal channels.
“The Internet service providers should not be blocking whole sections of the Internet - all Usenet groups - because there may be some illegal material buried somewhere," ACLU technology director Barry Steinhardt said. "That's taking a sledgehammer to an ant.”
Other major Internet service providers in California include AT&T and AOL.