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Originally Posted by InfiniteNow
If the laws don't protect EVERYONE equally, then they are meaningless and are no longer laws.
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I'm not too sure about that. If a hitman botches a job, and only maims the victim, and subsequently gets fired from the mob, can he file a lawsuit for unfair dismissal? Can a drug peddler working a tough neighbourhood claim danger pay from his employer? I don't think so. All these people are making a living through knowingly breaking the law, and they must live with the associated risks - with no recourse to the law. You can't ignore the law in your line of work and then try to fall back on the law when you get your fingers burnt.
Same with kiddie-porn afficionados, I think. If they get onto a website promising them a lolita-fest, only to have their fingers burnt, I think they'll feel very silly and move on with their lives. Hell - a few might even quit after seeing their IP's logged. They might paranoically believe that the fuzz are gonna pop through the door any minute! So, apart from generating money for a tiny, cash-strapped government agency, some more good might even come off this.
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... the laws (even if it's just for fraud) must apply to all citizens the same way or they mean nothing.
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I agree, and that's where the dilemma comes in! But think of it this way, from an ethical point of view:
Any normal person knows that surfing kiddie-porn is illegal (at least in my country). Breaking the law, you should expect some repercussions. Unfortunately, controlling what people surf on the net is almost impossible - look at China, for instance. So, enforcing laws on the net is basically a pipe dream. Yet, there are people breaking the law (surfing kiddie porn), safe in the knowledge that no harm can befall them. So, if they go to this particluar site, and burn their fingers and lose a few bucks in the process, it might be seen as a sort of a "fine"? A penalty paid for knowingly breaking the law? This might give them an aversion to future visits to other websites, 'cause who knows - they might have to pay good bucks to see a screen telling them what bad people they are, and that their IPs have been logged. So we might even throttle visits to other sites eventually.
I can only see good things coming from this...
