[FYI] (Fwd) FC: What CyberPatrol doesn't want you to see

["Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.de>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Sat, 11 Mar 2000 09:15:44 -0800 (PST)
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@vorlon.mit.edu
Copies to:      	mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca, srm_dfr@hotmail.com
Subject:        	FC: What CyberPatrol doesn't want you to see
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

So I took a look through the CyberNOT list and was pleasantly
unsurprised by the program's zaniness, idiocy, and sheer lunacy.
Incompetence and prudishness are still alive and well in the
censorware industry!

To be fair to CyberPatrol, the bulk of the verboten-links are sexually
explicit, or at least may have been at some point in the last five
years. But parents and libraries might want to think twice about
installing something that can't tell a quilting club from
sexybabes.com.

For instance, CyberPatrol blocks all student organizations at Carnegie
Mellon University, including (you guessed it) the Carnegie Threads
quilting club, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, and robotics clubs:
   http://loiosh.andrew.cmu.edu/org/ (Sexual Acts / Text, Intolerance)

For no apparent reason, it blocks the entire corporate site of Golden
West Companies ("serving the communications needs of South Dakotans
for over 40 years"):
   http://goldenwestcom.virtdomain.nortel.net/

What Usenet newsgroups Cyberpatrol's morality crusaders find
objectionable is arguably even more interesting. For instance,
journalism discussions are off-limits because of "intolerance," which
might be a just criticism of some corners of the industry, but
certainly doesn't seem enough to ban discussions of newsgathering:

alt.journalism:
alt.journalism.music:
alt.journalism.newspapers:
alt.journalism.print:
alt.journalism.photo:
alt.journalism.freelance:
alt.journalism.moderated:

Some others include discussions of Philip K. Dick's science fiction
(alt.books.phil-k-dick is sorted into drug/drug culture), feminism,
Jungian psychology, food, Chinese culture, and chess and bridge.

More info:
   http://www.politechbot.com/p-00994.html
   http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=censorware
   http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=loudoun

-Declan

alt.abuse-recovery:
alt.answers:
alt.cybercafes:
alt.feminism:
alt.feminism.individualism:
alt.multimedia.toolbook:
alt.multimedia.director:
alt.psychology.personality:
alt.psychology.help:
alt.psychology.person:
alt.psychology:
alt.psychology.jung:
alt.psychology.adlerian:
ba.motss (same-sex issues and discussions)
fj.rec.food:
fj.soc.culture.chinese:
misc.activism.progressive:
news.groups.reviews:
news.groups.questions:
news.groups:
ont.general:
princeton.general:
rec.games.chess.analysis:
rec.games.chess.misc:
rec.games.pinball:
rec.games.backgammon:
rec.games.board:
rec.games.bridge:




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