From: Janie Wilkins (wilkins@princeton.lib.nj.us)
Date: Tue Oct 03 2000 - 08:40:22 PDT
As a librarian, I am considered to be public enemy #1 by Dr. Laura
because I oppose filtering in public libraries -- see an overview
article at http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/05/27/dr_laura/. So,
you can imagine my delight when I came across the announcement on the
Digital Freedom Network site announcing that they had winners in their
"Foil the Filters" contest. Ah yes, perfect example of what filters do
unintentionally ... A bit of a long read, but worth it for the laughs...
the winners and some of my favourites are below:
http://dfn.org/Alerts/contest.htm
September 28, 2000
DFN media release | Related material
Winners of the Foil the Filters Contest
Thanks to all who submitted entries in the Foil the Filters
Contest, including the many
anonymous ones. We hope this contest will help illustrate how
unreliable censorware is and
provide further examples for those interested in exposing it. And
of these examples, these are
our favorites....
Grand Prize
Joe J. reports being prevented from accessing his own high
school's Web site from
his own high school's library. Carroll High School adopted
filtering software which
blocked "all questionable material." This included the word
"high."
Runner-Up
You wouldn't think someone named Hillary Anne would have
censorware
problems, but all attempts to register hillaryanne@hotmail.com
were rejected
because censorware spotted the hidden word "aryan." Hillary says
"I had to email
and fight the system like crazy to actually be able to use my
registered nickname
again."
The Silicon Eye Award
For finding objectionable content where only a computer
would look
Winner
Tim M. wanted to register an account with Sympatico, but it
wouldn't accept the
name "Heather," which contains the phrase "eat her."
The Poetic Justice Award
For those bitten by their own snake
Tie
An anonymous submitter noticed that the Web site of Richard
"Dick" Armey,
Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives and a
staunch defender of
censorware and strict Internet regulation, is himself a victim of
censorware.
Netnanny, Surfwatch, Cybersitter, N2H2, and Wisechoice are among
the
"software solutions" which Armey advocates. All of them filter
his site because it
contains the word "dick."
<snip>
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