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.

Comments

Don't give up but don't get too excited either

[Anonymous Coward]

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....

What to do...

[Trekologer]

First, if you are under 18, there's nothing you can do in the courts. And even if you're over 18, you can guarantee that the school isn't going to take you seriously. They will listen to your parents, teachers, the public, and the press.

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.

Wall Street Journal on censorware data-selling

[Seth Finkelstein]

The Wall Street Journal article mentioned in the posting can be found in Google's new Usenet archive:

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)

Rating Censorware

[Alien54]

Consumer Reports Magazine has a special report on censorware.

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.

Prominent filters like Cyber Patrol and Cybersitter 2000 may make some people suspect that value judgments come into play because their makers refuse to divulge the blocked-site lists. In October 2000, the Library of Congress ruled that such lists could be made public by anyone who could decipher the data files in which they are stored.

To see whether the filters interfere with legitimate content, we pitted them against a list of 53 web sites that featured serious content on controversial subjects.

Results varied widely. While most blocked only a few sites, Cybersitter 2000 and Internet Guard Dog blocked nearly one in five. AOL's Young Teen control blocked 63 percent of the sites. According to AOL, its staff and subscriber parents choose the sites kids are allowed to see using this control, with an emphasis on educational and entertainment sites. Our test sites may have been blocked because they didn't meet AOL's criteria, not because they were controversial.

Our results cast doubt on the appropriateness of some companies' judgments. Perhaps the most extreme example of conflicting judgments: the ones applied to the site of Peacefire, an anti-filtering site that provides instructions on how to bypass filtering products. AOL, Cyber Patrol, and Cybersitter 2000, which keep their blocked-site lists secret, blocked Peacefire. Net Nanny, which makes its list public, didn't block it.

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.

Re:What you need to do...

[keesh]

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?

Re:Talk to the board first

[jsproul]

It sounds like you have three major points, at least two of which are of interest to the school board. Make sure you prepare, prepare, prepare before you even engage with the school board.

I would strongly suggest you find an "advisor", preferably a librarian, teacher or administrator to assist and guide you in your efforts - no doubt they are at least somewhat familiar with the politics and dynamics of the school board. They should come with you to the board meeting, although they do not need to participate in the presentation. They are there to advocate for you, to lend legitimacy to your efforts in the eyes of those who may not be so enlightened about the validity of minors' concerns, and to help you make the best presentation you possibly can.

In your preparations, be very organised. Focus on the two of three points that will best achieve your ends: (1) the software prevents you from visiting valuable research sites; and (2) the software is being used to violate your privacy to enrich this greedy corporation.

On (1), as others have said, make sure you have a long list of sites. However, you should also detail the merits of the top 3 and be prepared to answer questions on the top 10. Have at least a few notes on each site to refer to if a question is asked about its content. You should have some screenshots of the top 10 so people can see and understand what this resource is you are trying to access so that they can see for themselves how valuable it is.

On (2), make sure you have one or more good analogies to what this company are doing that could be understood by someone who has never used a computer in their life. Remember, you're addressing the least common denominator here - the general public. Make your arguments relevant to these people by couching them in terms of everyday life.

I would not raise the issue of the software failing to block some sites - it complicates the discussion unnecessarily, and does not advance your position. It might even hurt your position by suggesting to some that (a) you are a troublemaker who wants to look at porn; and/or (b) stronger measures are needed, like disconnecting the 'net completely. If someone raises this issue, simply deflect it back to your main arguments by stating "We're not trying to look at porn, so it doesn't matter. We're much more concerned about the fact that this software prevents us from using the 'net for our education and invades our privacy." This should win you some points *and* avoid an emotionally-charged "morals" issue.

To summarise, prepare very well, partner with an authority figure who is respected in the community and in school politics, and organise your presentation very carefully so that every point you make comes back to your central argument: we need to get rid of this software.

Good luck!

Electronic Communications Privacy Act

[Freshman]

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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Re:trap them

[Seth Finkelstein]

There is a piece on censorware.org that talks about some political campain sites being blocked

That was in fact Blind Ballots by peacefire.org

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)

Call the ACLU

[fhwang]

It's pretty simple: Find a legal advocacy organization such as the American Civil Liberties Union and ask them if they'd be interested in turning your situation as a test case. The unconstitutionality of a law can't be determined when the law is signed; it can only be determined after the fact, when that law is applied to an actual situation involving actual people. This means that although the ACLU has a big staff of lawyers and law students who do the legal research & court litigation, they can't initiate the lawsuits themselves. They need to find a plaintiff directly affected by the law in question, so they can initiate the suit.

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.

What you need to do...

[snellac]

...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.