RE: Gun Activists Have A Stake Against Filtering Software [Censorware]

From: Joe Dees (joedees@addall.com)
Date: Wed Mar 21 2001 - 10:41:50 MST

('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is) I think that the American Tobacco Institute should also lodge such a 1st amendment complaint; their glamorization of their product to children results in them killing each other as they share it, too, only more slowly. This message belongs on exi-freedom, not here, as Max More has explicitly stated, and I am referring a copy of it to him.

>Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 02:58:09 -0500
>To: extropians@extropy.org
>From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
>Subject: Gun Activists Have A Stake Against Filtering Software [Censorware]
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>
>Both the American Civil Liberties Union and The American Library
>Association filed suit 3-20-2001 in Federal court to stop the
>Children's Internet Protection Act (CHIPA). This is the act that
>forces libraries and schools to use filtering software (censorware).
>You can read both complaints here:
>
>ACLU http://www.aclu.org/court/multnomah.pdf
>
>ALA http://www.ala.org/cipa/cipacomplaint.pdf
>
>Filtering software has been pushed as the solution to stopping
>children from viewing inappropriate materials, like pornography, on
>the Internet. However, the software has numerous flaws, the most
>basic being that it doesn't stop all of the pornography. More
>ominously, and more of a threat to our long term liberty is the fact
>that the software in many cases "blacklists" political and other
>material incorrectly. Seth Finkelstein, who just won the Electronic
>Freedom Foundation's Pioneer Award, details a few gun related sites
>that are blacklisted. If a school or library had the SmartFilter
>program installed, students would be blocked from viewing those
>sites. As a point of information- http://www.ayoob.com which is
>listed as "extreme" is the site run by the noted Police firearm's
>Instructor Massad Ayoob. The site is His Lethal Force Institute,
>which trains qualified citizens and police in armed self defense
>techniques. The other sites, are listed under the category of
>criminal skills. http://www.springfield-armory.com is the site for
>Springfield Armory an American producer of fine firearms. My
>recommendation is that everyone enter their favorite site's url at:
>http://www.securecomputing.com/cgi-bin/filter_whereV3.cgi and see if
>their site or company is blocked. Then I'd take whatever action,
>including the courts to have the incorrect designation removed.
>
>Regards, Matthew Gaylor-
>
>[Please post this to other RKBA forums and elsewhere if relevant.]
>
>
>Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 01:25:52 -0500 (EST)
>From: Seth Finkelstein <sethf@sethf.com>
>To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
>Subject: Gun activists have a stake against censorware
>
>[Feel free to forward to your list]
>
> As you know, the groups ACLU/ALA/PFAW will be filing a
>lawsuit against the Federal censorware law (CIPA). It's important to
>understand that the reach of censorware extends to far more than sex.
>Anyone who can be the target of a secret blacklist has a stake. As a
>small illustration, a quick check shows the censorware program
>SmartFilter blacklists many gun-related sites under the category of
>"Criminal Skills":
>
>http://www.gun-room.com
>http://www.gungarage.com
>http://www.gun-tests.com
>http://www.guns.com
>http://www.gunsamerica.com
>http://www.ncggasgun.com
>http://www.championfirearms.com
>http://www.springfield-armory.com
>
>And http://www.ayoob.com is considered "Extreme" (that's akin to obscene)
>
> These can be verified by testing the URLs using the web-form at
>http://www.securecomputing.com/cgi-bin/filter_whereV3.cgi
>[It would be a good idea to do such a check before you send out this
>message, because the blacklist may be changed after this is publicized]
>
>__
>Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer sethf@sethf.com http://sethf.com
>EFF Pioneer: http://www.eff.org/awards/20010305_pioneer_press_release.html
>Anticensorware Investigations: http://sethf.com/anticensorware/
>
>
>
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