Hi, Kestrel.

--- Kestrel  wrote:

> good grief....
> Filters are good... 

Filters are not good.  The might offer an advantage in some areas,
but those are almost certainly outweighed by the disadvantages
overall.

> I praise them daily for blocking a hundred msgs
> a day I don't want, but some of them do go too far. S**y gets
> blacklisted? Sheesh!

Most of them go too far one way and not far enough the other.  There
are too many mainstream sites that get blocked for specious reasons,
as we are being blocked, and too many real pornography sites ( X-
XXX) that are not blocked.  Seth Finkelstein, a notorious censorware
analyst, has an article up at his web site about how the U.K.
parliament installed a filter that won't allow messages in Welsh. 
This filter also blocked messages containing the word pussy-cats and
a quote from the Bard about tit-willows.  The biggest complaint is
that it is also blocking communications by people who are drafting
some kind of sex bill.

http://sethf.com/pipermail/infothought/2003-February/000021.html

The whole issue when it comes down to splitting hairs (ahem) of this
ilk is the circumvention dilemma.

Circumvention Dilemma: The court of appeals in Corley put its
finger on the circumvention dilemma when it identified "two
unattractive alternatives": either tolerate some infringement of
intellectual freedom in an effort to stop piracy, or else "tolerate
some decryption" in order to avoid trampling on free expression. This
"fundamental choice," said the court, "cannot be entirely
avoided."

With the DMCA, of course, Congress chose to impair a lot of
intellectual freedom in order to stop the spread of circumvention
tools that can be used by digital pirates. In the process, it
drastically undermined fair use and the free exchange of ideas.
And although there is no perfect answer to the circumvention
dilemma, the DMCA strikes too repressive a bargain.
--http://www.fepproject.org/policyreports/copyright.html"
target="blank"> "THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND USEFUL
ARTS":
WHY COPYRIGHT TODAY THREATENS INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM, Free
Expression Policy Project interim report, 2002

=====
Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is 
the loftiest of cowardice. --Holbrook Jackson

>From the Lair of Fang-Face DreamWeaver
and The Encyclopedia Michael Nellis
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/dreamweaver/index.html

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--- Rachel's Little NET2FIDO Gate v 0.9.9.8 Alpha