Slashdot Mirror
Legal Action Against Censorware?
spoonboy42 asks: "I am a student in a school district that uses N2H2's Bess censorware. We've had to live with it for several years now, and it routinely overblocks sites of real educational merit, while pornography slips on through. Now, it has been revealed that data as to kids' surfing habits is being sold to advertisers. I believe this crosses a line, and I think most of my fellow students will agree. My question is, what legal options do a bunch of minors with very little money have against a corporation like N2H2? Should we try to go through our school board to get the software out of the district (our goal), or should we attempt to take Bess to court?" Sounds kind of shady...would a class-action suit be appropriate for situations like this? Regardles of the legal options that are available, I hope spoonboy will keep us apraised of his situation as things progress. I'm sure other opponents of censorware will be interested in how things turn out as this is a clear illustration of how censorware technology can be misused.
Then I'd just have to update the blocked list with whatever it turned out they were hitting the most.
If you are forced to sign an agreement, then it is not binding in court. So you can still sue, the school forced you to sign their agreement, on pentilty of lower grades if you didn't. That is not legal.
Getting a court to agree depends on how good your lawyer is of course, so contact a good one instead of taking my advice.
Why censorware isn't nessesarily bad:
Well you do use the school's hardware, the school's internet connection. Some schools don't use censorware as such, but block IRC and napster ports and the popular gaming sites with a firewall. They don't want the kids to waste the school's resources on things that have nothing to do with education, and could even get them in trouble with concerned parents.
If they didn't use censorware, some concerned parents could say: you are doing nothing to prevent our children from being exposed to porn, we are going to sue to get the computers removed from school. Now at least the school are doing their best, which isn't that good, as censorware doesn't really work.
As for monitoring surfing habits:
As long as they don't log your identity along with the surfing habits, it's the legal equivalent of standing in a store and taking notes on kids' purchasing habits. Nothing you can do.
Spam their logs with thousands upon thousands of visits to sites selling religious and educational books, health food, geriatric healthcare sites, www.whitehouse.gov etc, and make the data useless.
Actually, I was thinking conservative as in a conservative approach to testing, etc. not conservative politics.
Ah.
Their testing isn't political, but they do have a separate lobbying agenda that is left-wing in nature, advocating for nationalized health care in particular and greater government regulation in general. (I read the mag when I visit my parents, my dad's been subscribing since before CU stepped up its lobbying.) CU isn't anywhere near as bad about this as, say, the AARP, but it's worth noting. The irony is that their unbiased product testing is the best replacement for ham-handed government regulation. Go figure.
Actually, that hasn't been true for years. Consumer Reports has been pushing a left-leaning political agenda, socialized medicine in particular. Product reviews are still their primary focus, but I won't subscribe because of their politics.
The linked article is good, if lacking in specifics (which sites are "controversial"?). Just be aware that CU is not apolitical.
I said I won't subscribe to their mag (ie, won't give them money which would support their lobbying agenda), I didn't say I don't listen to them. Big diff.
More to the point, the poster I was replying to called CU "conservative", which is what I was trying to correct.
Not all opinions that someone disagrees with, or might disagree with, are flamebait. The above is an example of the former, not the latter.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Do you realize that a censorware app that blocks sites that contain the word "sex" would block the amendments to the US constitution?
These apps are pure evil and must be abolished. It's just another crutch so that parents and teachers can blame somebody else when the kids go astray. There's no way software can replace parenting and proper supervision.
The horrific side effect is that it keeps our populace ignorant of the rules and laws of our society, which I don't think corporate America has any qualms about. I'll bet SpoonBoy42 here would hit a brick wall if he tried to use the internet at school to look up ways to usurp Bess's market position.
Censorship helps nobody and is typically a tool of oppression. Let's not reenforce a precedent and casually let this issue slip by.
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
I've found one place where using SafeWeb doesn't help -- a local university's library has a local filter that blocks any url with "member" or "mail" in it. Too bad SafeWeb can't somehow scramble the URL of the site you're going to so the local admins can't see where you're going... ("I see you went to monster.com through SafeWeb, Smith -- you're fired!")
I am definitely not a lawyer, but since filtering software is or will be mandatory, there might be a case here -- since the guvmint's indirectly blocking access to, say, Peacefire in all schools.
Contact the ACLU, or the national library association that is bringing suit against the forced use of censorware. You and your friends are ideal poster children (sorry for the term, you know what I mean) for the cause. Just remember to read all the /. and peacefire stories on the stupidities of censorware before getting up on the witness stand, 'k?
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
My God... this crap is still around? I remember dragging my maladjusted internal clock into homeroom at 7 AM, and having zit cream and Cheetos commercials blasted in my face. How demeaning.
The only thing you can do as a student is try to behave like more of an adult than you are treated. If you can do that, you win.
Everyone is afraid of the Internet because of the scary pedophiles and child pornographers lurking at every click, waiting to exploit the innocence of our precious and trusting children, yada yada yada. Put this in these terms. You -- the children of the community -- put your trust in this provider and they deliberately violated it and peddled your virginal assets all over town, to anyone who was interested, including to (do a little research first) advertisers that are associated with pornography (e.g. that are in any way involved with creating naughty banner ads or engaged in any way with any website of vaguely dubious decency). Presented badly and without any care as to the way your message is received, you'll come off as a bunch of whiny spoiled anti-capitalist (and thus un-American) geeks. Presented properly, the PTA will be up in arms, and hell hath no fury like a band of PTA moms in defence of their children's innocence.
Pros:
*Gives the ability to communicate with students from foreign countries
*Allows students something to learn about in their free time
*gets students interisted in things they would not normally be interisted
Cons:
*things which adults wish them not to see (we all know everything that fits in that category)...
As both a students and a network assistant, I can truly say that censorware SUCKS. We tried it, and found that it just does not work.
The reason it does not work is this: I would say 10% of the porn sites that I come accross are stationary sites (such as whitehouse.com). These websites are banned at the district forewall level. It is these sites that students say "hey, check out whitehouse.com", and then they see it. The other 90% of the sites are run using redirectoin servives and free webhosting. These sites will never be able to be blocked in time because they change URL's every 12 hours, and this is a lot quicker than the censorware will ever catch the majority of them.
We have put a policy into place:
You are caught viewing porn or other such material, immiediate consequences are at the bare minumum loss of rights to use any computer in the district for any reason.
You ask, how many have been caught? The answer is 2 last year and 1 this year. If you think there are a lot more you are wrong. Most people in my school do not know I am a network assistant (self-created title, we really have none, but its the best explanation), so they do not know I am watching. If I haooen to see something wrong, I simply go to that machine and check the users history folder. I have yet to see any that had more than 1 instance of this accidently happening.
ok, that was not all on topic, but you get the idea.
"And it passed: http://techlawjournal.com/censor/19990624.htm and allowed to stand by the Supreme Court. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/149865.html." E-Rates passed. CIPA passed. E-Rates was approved by the Supremes. CIPA hasn't even finished its first round in court. They are 2 separate things, and while CIPA is a parasite on E-Rates, E-rates has been around for about 2 years, while CIPA is only about 2 months old.
Become a FSF associate member before the low #s are used
Not the same at all. Channel One is a one-way broadcast. They send 10 minutes of signal (with a couple minutes of ordinary commercials) but they get no information back from the schools. The ads are targeted in the same way that MTV is targeted -- teenagers buy stuff like acne pads, scooters, and cola. Duh. Annoying, but I'd like to see you find ANY law it violates.
Collecting web click data without consent is A Bad Thing. Doing it on children under 13 is definitely a federal crime.
In the US the Children's Online Privacy Act offers some protection for children from the school district, or anyone for that matter, collecting information on children age or younger. I would certainly think the selling of this information would be criminal at the very least.
p a. htm
However there is one huge hitch in the law. That hitch provides that the school can act as an agent of the parent in consent issues. This would seem to contradict the "spirit" of the law itself.
That being said I do believe that if enough parents strongly voiced objections to the collection and sale of information on children under 13 to third party entities, something would be done.
In case it is NOT done, simply collect documentation and enlist the aid of your local media. School officials tend to dislike media attention on subjects that may imply they are involved in child exploitation.( I view this as child exploitation, I hope you do too. )
Regardless of the age limit in the Children's Online Privacy Act, the collection and sale of information concerning minor children in schools simply should not be done IMHO.
Link to the Children's Online Privacy Act Press Release:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/9910/childfinal.htm
Link to the full text of the rule ( note the first link is a PDF at 270K ):
http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/9910/64fr59888.pdf
http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/9910/64fr59888.htm
Link on how to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/cop
And a link to the FTC Privacy Initiatives Page. This page has even more links to other pertinant information:
http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/index.html
Hope this helps a little!
Integrity is what you are when nobody is looking.
My rant to protectice parents: Censorware is a symptom of laziness and neglect in parenting. If you are truly concerned about what your child sees, then see it with them! Explain what they see, or better yet, teach them how to surf without reaching questionable sites. (You DID know that can be done, right? )
This is what the problem here is exactly: Lack of parental responsibility. The school is not a babysitter, nor is the TV/game console, and neither is the computer. If you are a parent reading this, and you expect your children to become model citizens in society, then take responsibility for your children's actions. If you are a child reading this, take responsibility for your own actions as well.
"Regardless of what Channel 1 says you can and can't do, most schools just don't care"
Most schools might, but others will send you to jail. The colonization of our minds by advertising is proceeding apace. Sleep soundly citizens!
Who me, cause trouble? Nah.
Fight Spammers!
Fight Spammers!
My suggestion would be to find a sympathetic adult to go to the mat with you. It's absolutely necessary. It's almost tradition to dismiss cries of fould from students, but once a parent or respected member of the community makes clear that they won't leave until the matter's addressed --- that's a different storey. Select someone that will stick by you, is even tempered, eloquent, persuasive, and preferably connected. A teacher, librarian, youth group leader, or parent would be good choices.
For your part, start preparing a list of sites that get through and shouldn't, and sites that should get through but don't. Be prepared to demonstrate, and make sure that both are relevent (show the worst sites that get through, and the most educational sites that are blocked).
Finally, note that using a service that tracks children's browsing could conceivably pose a tangible threat to the children. There's no way in telling who buys, or receives what information and how detailed it may be. Were the information to fall into the wrong hands (a local child molester wannabe), the results could be devastating. And if something like that ever happened (and it certainly will someday), don't think for a second that child's parents won't sue that town or the state right into bankruptcy court.
Bear in mind also that you live in one of the most publicly anal-retentive countries in the world, where politicians and their sponsor corporations pay only lip-service to serious issues like this because the real votes lie in pandering to the large numbers of under-informed adults.
Have you tried the school-l and schoolweb-l mailing lists? These are specifically for discussing general education matters and internet matters respectively in relation to K-12/Highschool education. Mail me for details: for security the list details are not on the regular Web interface for LISTSERV lists.
Okay, they censor peacefire. But do they censor cnn?
g /
At my work they censor peacefire, but this still does the trick:
http://a1.g.akamaitech.net/6/6/6/6/peacefire.or
>Some have proposed using squid to block sites
No, please God no! They did that at the Waterloo County Board of Education (WCBE) which is now the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) and the internet never sucked worse.
It blocked out so much stuff I was surprised that www.disney.com wasn't blocked.
That plus the blocking was done by domain name, not IP. www.anonymizer.com was blocked, but www.anonymiser.com was being allowed.
I remember sites like www.nintendo.com being blocked. Sounds like there's no use for it, until you realize that kids get a lot more interested in education when it applies to them. Eg: English class. Learning how to write essays. How many kids would do a better job of writing an essay on what they enjoy? Most.
Well, none of the students could do it on comparisons of video game systems. Too bad really, since it would be a great opportunity to learn essay writing.
Remember the Chinese proverb:
Tell me and I may forget.
Show me and I may remember.
Involve me and I will understand.
Students can't understand their learning when it doesn't involve them.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I have found them to be buggy and not up all the time. The best place I have found for going around blocking proxies is www.safeweb.com. They've been advertising on Slashdot for a few weeks. It seems to work pretty well, it encrypts everything using SSL and even works with Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, etc. (which the Anti-Censorware proxies won't).
--
Actually, I was thinking conservative as in a conservative approach to testing, etc. not conservative politics.
While I have not really seen a copy of the mag in a while, my first impression of the magazine is not political, but testing. I certainly can see their political views as mild, given the example. They do not go over the top in politicizing their results, that I know of. Given the consumer advocacy element of their message, I suppose you could position them as liberal, but this might not be quite right. And some folks get polarized by anything they see that does not line up with their views.
But the bottom line is that they say the software is basically junk, producing 20% or more of the time undesirable results.
And they are positioned to make the point.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
That's where you are in second grade. You can't stop there.
I guess we would have to agree that we disagree on that matter. Particle physics is one of the fields (astronomy is too) where it takes a very long time for printed media to catch up with material made available by research institutions on the web. There is no way you can learn about current research in particle physics without using the web at least weekly. As for researchers, people on the house here rarely consult printed media anymore.
Now, if we're talking 15-year-olds, it is not critical that they have access to the latest results. If they get access to it, however, it will significantly enhance their education. I get kids coming up to my office to interview me about things like general relativistic world models. To let them in, of course I demand that they are well prepared, and they really are, and they have been using the web to gather information that is hardly available to them by any other means.
However, what is most essential about giving them access to the internet, is something that has been mostly neglected in normal education: Kids are taught about what to think, but not how to think. How to filter out the crap in the Real World [tm] in which the internet is important, is so important that if you neglect it, you will have been given an education that is hardly useful.
School is supposed to prepare you for the Real World[tm], how can you possibly have an education without proper exposure to the internet?
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
I disagree. It is very important that intelligent kids like the poster fight censorware in his school so that the other kids who are not as intelligent, enlightened or resourceful can seek information as freely as the rest of us.
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
I can see that things are very different around here. For one thing, kids have formal power from the time they begin at school. From about age 12, kids elect representatives among themselves to represent them in the School Board. In some schools, these representatives may be ignored, in which case they may have a hard time being heard the way they are entitled to, but in my school, when I was in the pupils council in 7. grade, they sure listened to us.
Secondly, censorware doesn't have a good name around here. Especially in Denmark, they have a few highly clued people in high positions. Recently, the Danish Minister of Culture said she would consider a ban on censorware in public libraries! What happened is that one small public library put up censorware on their computers "to protect the children". Both the largest associations of librarians in Denmark oppose this, and the minister said she hopes the librarians will sort it out themselves, but also that she felt that the filters threatened free expression, she would interfere. She also was also cited saying that people seeking legitimate sex education would be hindered by the filters as one particular concern.... I have a link to the story in Norwegian newspaper, in Norwegian.
First, I would go to my parents and voice my concern to some of my best teachers first. For one thing, the Univerals Declaration of Human Rights states in Article 26 that parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. Thus, the school should be careful about restricting you internet access more than what your parents say. If you find some good teachers who agree with you, preparing an argument as to why censorware is bad and illegal, is a really good school project, especially if you're preparing a lawsuit! :-) It would take an understanding of relevant laws that are beyond the curriculum, for sure...
However, I don't think a lawsuit would be your best primary move, I'd say first go for your school to drop it. Now, if you had the formal power we have, you would have a nice paved road to follow, but since you don't, I guess there are other people's advice here will be useful than mine.
Around here, I think the best way to kill censorware as a commercial product is to refer to fair trade practices regulations. It sounds to me like you don't have the same regulations like we do. For one thing, if someone advertises their product saying "our product protects your children from seeing pr0n", they would have to prove it. Of course, the censorware of today is pure snake oil, and all you would have to do is a short demonstration of that fact, and they're out. I think it would make a hell of a lawsuit here, I would consider it just for the fun of it.... :-)
Since you don't have a paved road in this case either, would have to work hard to get someone in power to understand that censorware is snake oil, and that it is not only that current block lists are poor, it's that any AI based software just can't work, it will remain snake oil for all foreseeable future. If you are able to get them to understand that, I think you've come a long way.
It's good that you're going to take up a fight! There are probably many who are suffering from these filters but who are not as intelligent, enlightened and resourceful as you, and who are not able to take up the fight. So go get 'em! :-)
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
Yes, schools all over the country are now sending students to jail for not watching Channel 1...
The problem with capped Karma is it only goes down...
SIG: HUP
(Score: -1 Lack of real information)
Wasn't there a law passed recently (within the last year) that requires companies who collect information on minors online to fully disclose what that information is AND to get parental consent?
It would seem these datapimps have a disclosure problem here unless they're throwing up their privacy statement in front of the students whenever they access the web through their software.
STFW - I'm sure I've heard this recently.
www.aclu.org
1. What they are trying to accomplish.
2. Why they use software that does not achieve that goal.
3. What they are trying to accomplish (needs re-asking in the face of the bullshit "it's all we've got" argument that they'll give to #2.
4. Whether their half-measures are worth banning legitimate sites.
Keep it open, keep it public, keep a record. Bring a camcorder to the meetings. Petty bureaucrats are less willing to be their usual moronic selves on film. Again, the taxpaying, voting parents are important to have on hand; they get very indignant at stupidity and waste in their local government, espesially when it hurts their kids. They might even go along simply because you guys are willing to take a stand. Good luck.
I spent a year in Iraq looking for WMD and all I found was this lousy sig.
Anyway, my point is not to brag that I'm luckier than you... I essentially wanted to back this paln -- get the teachers and librarians to help with petitions. But my suggestion -- don't stop bugging the school board until they give in, unless they threaten to file a complaint against you for harassment. :) (And if they do that, threaten to file a countersuit...) However, I wouldn't recommend that you jump to a lawsuit right away. If you run out of things to try, maybe legal action is in order. But I suggest that you bug the school administration, the school board, etc. Eventually, they'll at least give due consideration to your idea. But don't do it on your own. I disagree with the above post, a bunch of serious students would have some weight. Getting teachers and librarians to join in is even better, but don't stop because you can't get teachers to join your cause.
Again, I can't help you a lot, my experience with getting stuff blocked consists of not being allowed telnet access through the firewall, and I was told that if I talked to the head of the computer department, I could probably get it opened for my account...
_________________________________________________
________________________________________________
suwain_2
Don't show what it lets through; show what it *doesn't* let through. Showing that the software lets bad sites through will result in them wanting to make it more restricting. Instead, show them what it *doesn't* allow through.
_________________________________________________
________________________________________________
suwain_2
Internet usage profiling is nothing new. It's quite common nowadays.
Not to sound hostile, but this really sounds very petty. Mainly because I would doubt you are really losing any privacy. A distinct username isn't associated with any of the data, let alone personal information. While you can argue it's the principle of the thing, it still doesn't seem like that big of an issue.
In any event, the usage contract the school signed with the proxy provider probably has them covered. It's a waste of energy to dislike something intensely that can't go anywhere.
mwtr / THIS SIG HAS BEEN PRAYED OVER AND MAY BE USED AS A POINT OF CONTACT (ACTS 19:12)
I work for a school district in NY and we recently faced a similar problem to that being described. When we first got internet access for the district, the "Technology Committee" (both faculty, administration, and community members) decided that they wanted to use a censoring program in the middle schools, and elementary schools but to leave the high school open. It was felt that the high school students need this access and would use it responsibly, if not, we kick em off.
There is a new problem this year with E-Rate. E-Rate is national money used to subsidize technology in schools. Basically, as school can get almost 60% back of what they spend of technology (computers, broadband internet access, etc.) However, there was a new decision made that to be eligible for ANY E-Rate money, the district must use some censorship software. The bottom line, our district now uses this software on all schools.
The problem is not what the Parents want or even the school district. From a purely fiscal approach, we CAN'T afford to not get this E-Rate money. If you want to complain, this has to go to the national level, call you congressmen.
IANAL but...
Most laws protect only the OWNER of the product against problems with the software. IE) you can't sue ticketmaster for outragious ticket prices because the stadiums are the ones paying for the service. Also you can't sue MS for damages because the OEM purchaned the software not you.
The best you can do is organize with the parents in the community, show them how screwed up the system is. When you convince them that the software is not working then tell them that not only are they paying gobs of money for the software but the company is now profiting from your information by selling it to advertizers.
Just don't give up.
Good luck, and happy fighting.
Frist step get permission to speak at the next school board meeting, ask them just what you asked slashdot. Your next move will depend on the school boards action.
Who owns your data?
Vice President Al Gore urged Congress on Monday to pass legislation that would require schools and libraries using federal subsidies for Internet access to block inappropriate material from children. "As we connect every school and classroom to the Internet, we must protect our children from the red-light districts of cyberspace," Gore said. http://www.techweb.com/news/story/TWB19980323S0011
And it passed: http://techlawjournal.com/censor/19990624.htm and allowed to stand by the Supreme Court. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/149865.html. So for many rural and urban school districts, they don't have any choice. Censorship is required by law -- either that or back to a single dialup connection. :)
Of course, the school may not receive e-rate funding, in which case, they may be required by other local/state laws to filter access.
Photos of bits of the past hiding in the present: afiler.com
The TV Netowork Channel One has been in schools for probably 10 years. It has targeted ads that the school has to agree to make part of the instructional day (ie, they can't do anything else while it's on so the kids are forced to sit and stare at the screen). If that's not illegal, I don't know why this would be.
Did your parrents sign a document allowing the censorware software to track you browsing habbits? I bet not. This is where you fight. FInd a few parrents that are outraged at that. Get the most articulate ones to spearhead the suit to throw out that nasty software that is tracking kids browsing habbits. Only use the censorware's inabillity to properly as an additional hook to kick it out.
"Can we go to Mount Splashmore?"
"No"
"Can we go to Mount Splashmore?"
"No"
"Can we go to Mount Splashmore?"
"No"
"Can we go to Mount Splashmore?"
"No"
"Can we go to Mount Splashmore?"
"If I say yes will you shut up?"
"Yes. Can we go to Mount Splashmore?"
"Yes!"
Open Source. Closed Minds. We are Slashdot.
http://osiris.978.org/~brianr/ians/
Or the many others here:+ Proxy%22
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Anti-Censorware
There's even an SSL encrypted one, but I don't know the URL for that one off hand.
--
Free Mac Mini
...when you're all minors.
Now, it has been revealed that data as to kids' surfing habits is being sold to advertisers.
Here's your edge. No one's going to listen to you complain about having censorwear in the high school. Granted, we all know of its drawbacks and its dubious legality issues, but you don't have the power as a minor to fight back. But where there's profit involved, there's power.
There's one thing that you haven't made clear yet, and there's two paths to take depending on the situation.
1) The school district has set up a contract with N2H2 over the profiteering mess where the district shares in the profits.
2) The school district does not profit from N2H2 and N2H2 did this on their own account.
Situation 1 is going to be the most difficult to counteract, because it's going to involve numbers. First off, for both situations, LET YOUR STUDENTS KNOW...EVERY ONE OF THEM. Power is in numbers. Then, let your parents know that you as students are being profited against your own free will by a corporation. Bypass the school district and write letters (with AS MANY signatures -- in ink -- as possible...yourselves and your parents) to your state/country legislatures and your govenor and let them know what's going on. Also, write a brief synopsis of what is going on and send it to news broadcasters, local and national (it's a lot easier now with the internet, although I suggest you send it both by internet and also by formal snail-mail).
The problem with the first situation is that you can't counteract it by yourselves. Since you are minors, you lack the legal rights (which are in the hands of the school board) over a situation such as this.
If the second situation is what's occuring, it's much easier to deal with. You can do everything I listed in situation one, but you should begin though with the school board instead. At the next school board meeting, get the biggest herd of students you can muster (believe me, when two hundred+ kids show up for a school meeting, PEOPLE WILL HEAR, especially the news) and introduce this problem at the meeting, or call in early to get it on the agenda and have a student leader address the problem. Having your parents there as well would help.
Again, it's ethically wrong that a corporation is profiting on your behalf without your authorization, but because you're a minor, this authorization lies in the hands of the school board and your parents. But belive me, the power is in numbers.
Last spring, a nearby town's principal decided that it was in the school's best interest, due to a drop in the budget, to fire five teachers while giving himself a payraise over the next five years. Once the students heard about it, THE ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL (about 900 students) held a rally during the schoolday in the gym. The principal showed up to defend his position (of which he had none, but he tried to defend it anyway). At the next school board meeting, the principal was neglected his payraise in the budget proposal.
Do you think that a site which is regularly blocked for no reason (there are many many) could potentially sue a censorware company for creating a 'barrier to entry' or some such thing? It is equivalant to the censorware company standing outside of your door and not letting people in, especially in the context of a school or library where even though the site, and the user are participating in fair use as per guidelines, the censorware prevents the transaction. Run on sentances are my spesh-eee-ality
"Only amateurs attack machines; professionals target people."
I'm consistenly amazed why the /. crowd, which is usually open-minded about many issues, fails to even consider the other side of this censorware coin:
- Do schools and libraries actually need Internet access in the first place?
- If they do, do they need unlimited access?
- How is installing censorware any different than just not buying a book?
Let's face it: Internet access is not a necessary element of a student's first 12 years of education. Even it's value for the freshman and sophomore years of college is dubious at best. (How much time have we all wasted with email and web browsing? I'm glad no one is counting.)At my engineering school, the same test administered by the same professors for the last 50 years has lower scores today than in the 1950's, when Internet access, calculators and personal computers were unheard of. For all our clever technology, when it comes to our intellectual aptitude we're stupider than our grandparents.
If anything, censorship in schools needs to go further. Instead of blocking certain sites and locations, censorware should only allow certain sites and locations.
But with regard to Bess, if you think you can form a lawsuit because a company whose software you used compiled statistics on your usage patterns, you need to have another think. Would you also want to sue Mobil for compiling information on its SpeedPass users? Or Ford, for tracking information on people who purchase its cars? Do you seriously think that you can launch a lawsuit against Home Depot for counting how many people purchased vinyl siding? Of course not. And so you can't with N2H2, either.
Quit thinking you're so important that your browsing habits actually matter. They don't, and it is the mark of the self-absorbed to be paranoid, because paranoia makes people feel that their cause is that much nobler. But in your case, there is no data that even ties you as an individual to any marketers, so claiming damagers--the basis of any lawsuit--isn't even a plausible option. It's time to drop the ideas of removing Internet access blocks from your school's browsers. It's time to stop spending time surfing the web. And it's time to start studying for your classes, which is how you will get into a good college, where you will continue to study for your classes, which is how you will get a good job, where you will continue to study, which is how you will do something good and make a difference in this world.
(If I've been harsh in my wording, I apologize. My intent was not to troll or throw out flamebait, but to seriously present another facet--one which is rarely seen here--of this issue.)
--
Have fun: Join D.N.A. (National Dyslexics Association)
You'd be amazed how far a group of kids can go attending a schoolboard meeting with parents in tow (I did this once to help get our school district wired for ethernet in 1996).
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
The bonus for schools using Channel 1 is that they get free TVs. This is a very good thing actually - we've used our TVs to do in-school shows instead of having to heard everyone to a single room (and I get to do the whole production because nobody else seems to know how...). However, we cheat. We do some of those productions during Channel 1. Also note that students may do other things on there own, even if Channel 1 says they can't. Parents are allowed to remove students from any class, etc. that goes against what they feel is right - including the time that Channel 1 is on. And since no school I know of gives a Channel 1 "grade", they can miss it for the whole year.
PS - Channel 1 is also off in my class room right now. Lightning strike...
The problem with capped Karma is it only goes down...
SIG: HUP
This is a passive solution, but it will get you past the censorware.
Just use SOCKS. Find a college buddy or anyone with a box on broadband and throw up a socks 5 server. Then put SocksCap on the boxes at school. Download all of this here.
Now you can use the local applications and they will route all requests through the remote box. This is also a very good way to get around port limitations. If a school only allows port 80, but you want ICQ, just use SocksCap on port 80. Whee!
Of course, if you're paranoid you can also tunnel socks through ssh, which would encrypt your entire Internet session. Who's collecting your data now?
-Justin
You'd probably have more luck against the school district than the corporation. If you can conclusively and publicly prove that the software isn't working, then they'll have to consider other options. Mayeb show the local tv news a few of the sites that the filtering software lets through.
I am a lawyer, but don't construe this as legal advice...we'd probably both get into trouble. First of all, children are notoriously without rights when it comes to lawsuits. Besides the problems with standing (allowed party to sue) mentioned earlier, most of your "rights" don't mature until you're 18. Besides going to the school board (who also typically ignore students because their parents are the ones that vote and the parents are typically more stupid than the children) you may have a tougher time than you think. I would enlist the help of your parents. You need to sit down with them, educate them about the problem, and get one or more articulate parents to present the problem to the school board. Back that up with a petition from the remaining parents, and they you'll probably have a fighting shot...otherwise, if you present it yourself, you'll get the equivalent of "those kids are so cute" and you'll be shooed out to the playground to play on the swings while the board figures out which mahogany to put on the toilet seats in their board rooms....
Here's what you do:
Talk to your fellow students and get them to talk with their parents about the censorware situation. Stress the collection of your surfing habits and the censorware company's porfiting for them. Parents (read: NIMBY mothers*) will probablly become outraged at this alone. Also mention that the censorware blocks legitimate sites and allows naughty sites through anyway.
Talk to some of the teachers at your school. You might find some that support you. Ask them to talk it over at faculty meetings.
Try and find out how much it costs your school to license the censorware. Write into your local newspaper(s) explaining how much of a waste of taxpayer dollars censorware is. Cite some examples of legitimate sites being blocked (leave the naughty ones out). The public HATES property taxes and a good chunk of them go to the local scools. If the public sees their peoperty taxes being wasted, the mayor will get a few calls about it.
Take your parents to school boards meetings and bring up the issue there. They are going to want a viable alternative to the censorware. Here's one: an acceptable use contract signed by the students and parents that says if you do bad stuff, you loose computer provliges perminantly and faculty supervision of computer use. Stress that only a real human can watch someone properly, no comptuer can replace that.
Now remember, all these steps need well thought out planning. When you write to your local paper, make sure that you sound professional and have a professional appearance. Don't make yourself look like a bratty kid. You must gain support by others and you're only going to do that through good arguments. This might be a good time to read up on debating skills which you might need to face off against the school board.
* NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard. These are the people who yack on their cell phones all day yet cry foul when someone wants to put a cell phone tower within a mile of them, and the like. Give NIMBY females kids and they turn into whinny pains in the butt that you can't get rid of. It sucks to face off against them, but if they're on your side, nothing between heaven and earth can move them.
Web-Filter Data From Schools Is Put Up for Sale by Company
Sig: My Latest Censorware Essay:
What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
The point here is that this is a referance from a source that they both know and trust. They have a heavy reputation for being unbiased, and they work at it. Mind You, it is oriented to Adults with children, but they do approach the matter in a factual manner. Here is their take on some of the more "controversial" aspects of the censorware debate.
Bottom line, if you as a kid go in and protest, well "duh", you tend to get ignored. But if you go in with a nice conservative magazine not known for politics, but trusted for sensible judgement, and they support you, then it tends to cut through the BS a little. Of Course, there will still be certain defense mechanisms, but it opens a chink in the armor.Not surprisingly, the censorware companies are incensed by the report.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The problem being, peacefire is blocked by every censorship program I've ever had inflicted upon me.
Is it just me, or is blocking every site as "crime" which says bad things about iGear sort of immoral?
You should check out the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The ECPA act of 1986 may apply to the collection of surfing habits, and I know it appiles to email intercepting, screen recorders, etc.
My school had the same problem with software called Altiris Vision. I took the matter into my own hands, and removed the Registry key that ran the program on Startup, and was expelled from the district. It was probably for the better.
I'm re-uploading the page I did on the ECPA. You can get it here.
Hope that helps.
-Andrew
----------
----------
"They misunderestimated me." --George W Bush, Nov. 6, 2000
So, if you want to really stir some shit up, you can call them and see if they can use your situation as a test case. We know for a fact that the ACLU thinks that censorware in public institutions is unconstitional. (I also know some of the law students there, so I'll tell you that they're pretty nice people, too.) You could be that test case, if you felt you were up for it -- you wouldn't have to pay a dime in lawyer's fees, but you'd probably have to spend a lot of time in courtrooms, and talking to reporters. But who knows, some people really like that stuff. Good luck.
Do domain names matter?
...is obtain and compile a list of sites that you may need to visit for research purposes (I'm sure many Bill Clinton sites are blocked that describe the premise of impeachment). Get a lot of sites on that list.
Then, start a petition. I don't suggest giving it to students, because the Big guys' response will be that of "yeah, of course the students want the censorware gone." Get teachers to sign it. Get librarians who have to explain to students why they are shown a "Bess can't go there" page when they want to get the information they need. Explain to them how N2H2 is selling out to advertisers the browsing habits of the school's students. Propose your petition and list to the school board, along with convincing arguments why any type of censorware is bad, and how it's just a replacement for proper supervision. Check out Peacefire for arguments against the most common censorware applications. Good luck to you, and I'd like to hear the outcome of your scenario, as I'm in the same situation with Bess.