LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Mark Newton <newton@atdot.dotat.org>
  To  : tjcorkin@steadycom.com.au
  Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 17:45:41 +0930 (CST)

Re: Opinions on New Internet Bill (While I am still allowed to

Toby Corkindale wrote:

 > > Filtering software doesn't tell you what it's blocking.  The blacklists
 > > that come with filtering programs are almost always encrypted.
 >
 > Huh?
 > I suppose this could be this way to prevent competitors from stealing
 > the lists,

Yup.  Not just competitors, too:  Can you imageine the sales figures
on a CD-ROM full of pornographic URLs? :-)

 > but it also seems like a rather stupid thing from a
 > consumers/users point of view...I mean, say you find out that your
 > search engine is blocking out, say, a site about preventing AIDS, and
 > you want to unblock it, you couldn't really do it, if you can't access
 > the blacklist. 
 > (Can you?)

Most (but not all) of them provide a way of editing the blacklist
through a GUI.  Some of them don't give you complete control, though
(like, they may only have "slots" for 20 bad blocks, for instance).

 > Are there any Open Source proxy filters out there?

I don't generally consider that those with the kind of mindset that
encourages open-source software development are much inclined to
write software for the explicit purpose of reducing access to information.
I certainly hope not, anyway.

See http://www.censorware.org for HEAPS of information about censorware,
and http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/report_isheriff.html for a report
on Senator Alston's favourite censorship software.

   - mark

--------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried an internal modem,                    newton@atdot.dotat.org
     but it hurt when I walked.                          Mark Newton
----- Voice: +61-4-1620-2223 ------------- Fax: +61-8-82231777 -----

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