Bill to create Headache for Users

A bill has been placed on the House floor that requires that ISPs and wireless access point operators keep and maintain logs of Internet access for a minimum of two years. Aimed at the efforts to track down child porn traders, terrorists, and whoever else would fall under it's guidelines, this bill on the surface would seem to be a powerful weapon in tracking and bringing to justice these miscreants.

However, looking below these good intentions lie some devilish details. The most stiking is that *anyone* who operates a wireless access point or wired router and uses DHCP to do so will be required to keep and maintain these logs for a minimum of two years for use by law enforcement. That means in addition to the ISPs and the local, free or otherwise, wireless shops, consumers, businesses, schools, libraries, etc.will have to maintain and keep Internet access logs and "amounts to an enormous unfunded mandate" on all Internet users who to connect to the Internet.

IMHO, this is asking too much of individual users, businesses, etc. and is quite broad in its application. For starters the average Internet user doesn't even know that these logs exist and where they are placed. In most cases, logging is usually turned off. In addition, there is such a thing as computers and other equipment that has to be replaced for a various number of reasons. So the simple problem of a crashed hard drive becomes a law enforcement problem from the start.

Much of what is written in the laws of the land is rather old, behind the times, and so broadly written that it's no wonder that bad law comes to pass. Once on the books, it takes nearly an act of God to remove. This is one law, while noble in it's efforts, is poorly thought out and poorly written. I hope that clearer heads will prevail, but then Congress has never been a body known to use common sense to solve problems.