PEACEFIRE UPDATE

CYBERSitter scanning your hard-drive before installation

It has now been found that CYBERSitter scans your hard drive to see if you have visited Peacefire's site before you can install it on your computer.

If you have files on your computer's internet cache named peacefire*.* CYBERSitter will fail to install. Brian Milburn, CEO of CYBERSitter, implied that Peacefire members are hackers and he had to take the steps to stop them (see the PC World article). Mark Kanter, CYBERSitter's Vice President described Bennett Haselton as "[A] little entity we don't want anything to do with," and "Little Benny Weasleton." See more at:

A Wired article

A PC World magazine article

ACLU White Paper's article: Fahrenheit 451.2: Is Cyber Space burning?

This recent article condemns the government for first striking down the Communications Decency Act and then promoting blocking software. It references Senator Patty Murray's (D. Wash) proposed legislation "which would impose civil and ultimately criminal penalties on those who mis-rate a site [with self-rating software]."

It also referenced Netscape following Microsoft Internet Explorer's lead in using Platform for Interenet Content Selection (PICS) on its browser (the two browsers cover 90% of the market). The article mentioned that these kinds of rating software block all sites that have not been rated, so it would be like a CYBER-Yes list instead of a CYBER-Not list. There's a lot more, too, so you might want to read it:

HERE

Filtering Facts' new website

There is a new website called Filtering Facts (FF) that is countering American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom (ALAOIF). ALAOIF does not think Libraries should be able to use filtering/blocking software. FF promotes library usage of such software.

[Filtering Facts sounds like a corporate and/or fundamentalist front group!] FF claims that the ACLU intimidates libraries into not using filtering software. It promotes blocking software by explaining that libraries do not carry pornographic books, videos, magazines, et cetera, and that they shouldn't allow pornographic material to be accessed from the internet. On FF's homepage, they say, "Filtering means being a good librarian." FF admits that blocking software blocks not only pornography, but recommends that libraries get "better" software where you have an option of turning those functions off. It also states that, "No evidence of a 'hidden agenda' by filtering vendors exists." The site is located at:

Filtering Facts

Here's some more recent articles that are related to Peacefire, blocking software, etc.:

TIME magazine's August 11th article entitled "Censor's Sensibility" written by Michael Krantz and reported by Declan McCullagh and Bruce van Voorst. The article can also be found here

The PBS news hour transcript of a panel discussion on internet filtering in libraries reported by Spencer Michels. The panel included Cynthia Walker, a founder of KIDS, Keep the Internet Decent and Safe; Matthew Drummond, another active member of KIDS; Susan Fuller, Santa Clara Co-Librarian; Lani Yoshimura, Gilroy Librarian; Eric Smith, Gilroy Pastor; Judith Krug of the ALA; Steve Sydow of United Reasearch Labs, Dorothy Fields, an Orlando Libraian; and Susan Hill, an Ohio Librarian.

The transcript can be found here

Several articles about why PICS may be as bad or worse than the CDA by Lawrence Lessig, professor at the University of Chicago Law School. They can be found here

Ratings today, Censorship tomorrow, an article written by Joseph Salica. This article can be found here

Good Clean PICS, by Simson Garfinkel. It can be found here


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