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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.
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.
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?
Thrown out as unconstitional.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
"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
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"They misunderestimated me." --George W Bush, Nov. 6, 2000
And you won't find any censorware reports on censorware.org these days. Michael Sims (yes, that Michael Sims, Slashdot YRO editor) shut-down the censorware.org site, in a failed coup d'etat to control Censorware Project. Some of the material is now on a different site, censorware.NET.
The history is given in my essay below. Michael Sims has taken to abusing his Slashdot editorial position, to downgrade my postings whenever I mention what he did. Maybe this'll slip through. It's worth burning the karma over it.
Note censorware.NET would also like Michael Sims to stop confusing people over the domain names. No luck so far.
Sig: My Latest Censorware Essay:
What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
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.