thumb on the pulse...all new freedoms slowly die--sad but true--but only to be reborn time and time again anew.

I think you are framing this problem correctly. If you want to research this subject you must work with law enforcement or risk "great peril".

However your article does raise one question. Why would "independent research" be guaranteed to be free of it's own "flashy statistics" agenda, and bias? Independence does not equate to purity, competence and perfection.

This ZDNet UK article tries to bring some balance:

"The goals they are trying to achieve are very commendable, and they are goals we share. But it's not clear that all the issues we care about are being addressed," said Jonathan Lambeth, AOL UK's director of communications. [...]

There is [...] the possibility of legal action if a legitimate site was added to the blacklist by mistake, he said.