Food for Thought

[Gerald Combs]

On Tue, 5 Nov 2002, Philip, Anil [PCS] wrote:

> I do not have any quarrel with the bills listed there eg "Child Online
> Protection Act", and CIPA "Under CIPA, schools and libraries that receive
> certain Federal funds are required by law to censor the Web,..."
> Those are *good* laws. 

While the law's intentions are (were?) noble, its real effects are
piss-poor. As a result of CIPA and other efforts, most schools and
libraries are installing products like Cyber Patrol, BESS, or WebSENSE.  
The companies that make these products have absolutely no oversight, and
often block sites along political lines that may or may not match yours.

How comfortable are you with the idea that some arbritrary corporation has
direct control over what your child sees on the Internet?

Check out http://cyberwerks.com/cyberwire/cwd/cwd.96.12.20b.html and
http://www.peacefire.org/ for more info on why this is a Bad Thing.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: zscoundrel [mailto:zscoundrel at kc.rr.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 10:46 AM
> To: 
> Subject: Food for Thought
> 
> 
> You think your vote doesn't mean much, think about how these people got 
> into office, and how we can get them OUT!
> 
> http://www.aotc.info/archives/000152.html#000152
> 
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